The Americans by Hugo Munsterberg stands alongside Alexis de
Tocqueville's American Democracy as one of the great works on the
New World written by a scholar deeply familiar with the Old World.
When originally published, it gave the German public a sense of
American life, and was described as "a book which deals in a
detailed way with the political, economic, intellectual, and social
aspects of American culture." Munsterberg, a world-renowned
psychologist at the turn of the twentieth century, noted that "its
purpose is to interpret systematically the democratic ideals of
America." The primary aim of The Americans is to study the people
and America's inner tendencies. It offers a "philosophy of
Americanism," the ideology of a people writ whole. Munsterberg's
sense of the "spirit" of a people, rather than facts about the
people, is revealed in his four cardinal chapters: Self-Direction,
Self-Realization, Self-Perfection, and Self-Assertion. While he
covers the economic premises of the free market and the politics of
party affairs, he considers these the least important. Instead it
is the lasting forces and tendencies of American life, rather than
problems of the day, that occupy the author. This focus was shared
by German readers, for whom the book was conceived, and for those
in the United States who read the book in English. The dynamic of
strong basic tendencies of democratic forces and lesser, but
significant, aristocratic tendencies underwrites the strains and
tensions in American society. It also defines the special nature of
a book, written more than one hundred years ago, that retains its
lively sense of purpose and deep insight into American life. One
could well say that this book is required reading in this day and
age for Americans and Europeans alike. This is a neglected
masterpiece.
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