Writer’s Journal #2

1/9/02

Andrew Carnegie, “From The Gospel of Wealth”

Alexis de Tocqueville, “Equality and Materialism”

Question	Carnegie	de Tocqueville
How does each author characterize differences among people in the U.S.?  In other words, what kinds of differences does each author notice and how does each author talk about those differences?
How does each author relate these differences to material wealth in the U.S.?  In other words, how does each author see the differences among people (or lack thereof) impacting the way people think about money and its purpose in life?

John G. Cawelti, Apostles of the Self-Made Man

2. In your reading selection, Cawelti discusses American attitudes toward social mobility.  What might he say

about American attitudes toward success?  Alternately, what American cultural attitudes might he say support

the notion that success = $$$.