ABSTRACT
Social criticism was by no means a new thing in America. But unfortunately an excess of eagerness wore out the first enthusiasm, and when the shackles had been loosened from the negro bondmen the militancy of the New England leadership subsided and the tired New England conscience went on vacation. A child of Puritan conscience also was George William Curtis, like Wendell Phillips sprung from the Puritan gentry, but unlike Phillips wanting in a passionate Hebraism that sought justice in all the byways and would not turn aside from pursuing it. A cultivated gentleman, high-bred if not heroic, was George William Curtis. Of the early political novels three are of sufficient interest to reward attention: The Gilded Age, Democracy, and An American Politician. The theme of these earlier novels was politics as revealed by the Gilded Age; on the other hand The Bread-winners was one of the early economic novels.
