The Character and Function of a Pioneer Elite: Rural California 1848–1880

• Published in: Journal of American studies 1981-12, Vol.15 (3), p.377-389
• Main Author: Burchell, R. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alleys; Attorneys; Common law; Communities; Elites; High culture; Lawyer client communication; Statistical median; United States history; Workforce
• ISSN: 0021-8758; 1469-5154
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021875800008914

The history of the United States has been described again and again as the history of change, motion and instability. From Tocqueville to Turner, from Bancroft to Billington, from Berthoff to Thernstrom, the accent has been laid on the dynamic — whether it be democratisation, westward expansion, immigration, internal migration or “Americanisation.” It would appear almost incontrovertible that by 1900 the American people were unsettled, in search of order, pressured by the “M Factor,” responding unhappily to industrialism. Yet a number of questions may be asked: where, leaving aside the American Civil War as a very special case, is the evidence of large-scale dissatisfaction with and rebellion against the status quo; where is the evidence that, as the nation expanded west and its institutions extended over ever wider territories, they weakened and fell into disrepute; why did the United States succeed in reaching the Pacific in one piece rather than as several republics, as some of the Founding Fathers feared? One answer might be that the American people formed a consensus after all, but that is not the argument here. It is not necessary to involve the whole American people in an explanation of continuities, for the purpose here is to show how conservative, stabilising cultural control was in one case successfully provided by the few and not the many.