ABSTRACT
The story of disintegration and reintegration is a striking chapter in American life, a story that runs through two generations—the generation that came to maturity in the seventies, and the generation that came to maturity in the nineties. In the seventies the postulates of science were looked upon as no other than fresh sanctions for the Comtean principle of continuity—of growth and progress in sociology. As physics encroached upon the interest in biology, and leadership in speculation based on scientific findings passed from Spencer to Ernst Haeckel, young Americans of the next generation found the membership of the current philosophical trinity changed for them. It was a time of high hopes and young John Fiske, about to enter Harvard College, was not one to miss the significance of so great an awakening. In all his intellectual interests and attitudes Fiske was a complete New England Victorian, but scarcely a British Victorian.
