The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America

By Wilfred M. McClay and Wilfred M. McClay

Book Overview

In this provocative book, Wilfred McClay considers the long-standing tension between individualism and social cohesion in conceptions of American culture. Exploring ideas of unity and diversity as they have evolved since the Civil War, he illuminates the historical background to our ongoing search for social connectedness and sources of authority in a society increasingly dominated by the premises of individualism. McClay borrows D. H. Lawrence's term 'masterless men' - extending its meaning to women as well - and argues that it is expressive of both the promise and the peril inherent in the modern American social order.

Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines - including literature, sociology, political science, philosophy, psychology, and feminist theory - McClay identifies a competition between visions of dispersion on the one hand and coalescence on the other as modes of social organization. In addition, he employs intellectual biography to illuminate the intersection of these ideas with the personal experiences of the thinkers articulating them and shows how these shifting visions are manifestations of a more general ambivalence about the process of national integration and centralization that has characterized modern American economic, political, and cultural life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807844195
• ISBN13: 9780807844199
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Grand Review

Reading the description of the Grand Review - a two day parade of the army through Washington following the end of the Civil War - prompted me to wonder what it would be like if after the Iraq War we were to have the American forces march in review through Washington DC and how long it might take. Would anyone today be able to stand and watch the whole thing? The most poignant description was that of Seward recovering from his wounds in Lafayette Square honored by Sherman. (p 15) This statement (p 23) also struck me "War is the most powerful of all engines for fostering national self-consciousness, and the most reliable of all centralizing and unifying agents in human affairs." I considered this a major point since Professor McClay repeated it in a summary article besides the book, and reiterated it twice during the week while visiting UAA (for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday in 2009). It struck me that he wrote this after the Persian Gulf War but before the Iraq War, though it still clearly was a point of emphasis he makes today. It certainly gives one pause for reflection. Also interesting I found was McClay's treatment of Whitman. But the Grand Review becomes a ready analogy for the book as it marches an army of American intellectual history by us developing the paradox of individualism and the search for social connectedness.

Interesting and worth reading

Wilfred McClay is an amazing writer whose research and evidence shine through in this book. Thorough, detailed, and lively, The Masterless shows the similarities between individualism and conformity when the two are juxtaposed . In addition, McClay also shows us the meaning of individualism and conformity in this day and age. The Masterless is an appropiate title for this book because it is a reflection of the dichotomy (indeed, paradox) of the individual's role (or lack thereof) in everyday society.

A brilliant and nuanced discussion of the American character

This is a simply splendid historical analysis of the ambivalences inherent in the American character. McClay frames the issues within a process he calls "consolidation," which is the bureacratization and rationalization of American economic and political life. McClay concludes (as did Tocqueville) that the seemingly oppositional tendencies of hyper-individualism and bland conformism are in fact mutually reinforcing symbiotic sides of the same coin. McClay's writing is poetic, and his research is painstaking. A must read for anyone interested in American history.