American Traits from the Point of View of a GermanHoughton, Mifflin, 1901 - 235 pages |
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æsthetic Ameri American aristocratic arly Atlantic Monthly average become believe bring certainly chance character civilization classes Coeducation coöperation course cracy criticism culture demand democracy democratic desire docents duties elective energies equality Europe European fact factors feel German ideals German-American girl graduate school gymnasium higher highest HUGO MÜNSTERBERG ideal idealistic individual industry influence inner institutions intellectual interest knowledge less lower instincts marriage means ment merely mind monarchy moral movement nation natural never ocean pedagogy philosophy political practical prejudices privat-docents problem productive scholarship professional psychological psychology question realistic reform reinforce Russia salaries scholar scholarly selfish side social social philosophy social psychologist spirit stand studies talent tastes teach teachers tendency thing tion tive scholarship to-day true universal suffrage wealth whole woman women yellow press young
Popular passages
Page 129 - ... open fires, has danced and bicycled and golfed with them, has seen their clubs and meetings and charities, — he finds himself discouragingly word-poor when he endeavors to describe, with his imperfect English, the impression that has been made upon him ; he feels that his vocabulary is not sufficiently provided with complimentary epithets. The American woman is clever and ingenious...
Page 194 - ... more civilized forms of vulgarity." "The result is not necessarily, as Europeans often wrongly imagine, a general moblike vulgarity : but a bumptious oratory, a flippant superficiality of style, a lack of aesthetic refinement, an underestimation of the serious specialist and an overestimation of the unproductive popularizer, a constant exploitation of immature young men with loud newspaper voices and complete inability to appreciate the services of older men, a triumph of gossip, and a crushing...
Page 145 - But the American girl has not only no new powers to expect; she has in marriage a positive function before her, which she, again unlike her European sister, considers, on the whole, a burden; the care of the household. I do not mean that the German woman is enraptured with delight at the prospect of scrubbing a floor; and I know, of course, how many American women are model housekeepers, how the farmers' wives, especially, have their pride in it, and how often spoiled girls heroically undertake housekeeping...
Page 57 - I do not mean that we were helped in our work, but the teachers were silently helped by the spirit which prevailed in our homes with regard to the school work. The school had the right of way; our parents reinforced our belief in the work and our respect for the teachers. A reprimand in the school was a shadow on our home life; a word of praise in the school was a ray of sunshine for the household. The excellent schoolbooks, the wise plans for the upbuilding of the ten years...
Page 161 - American intellectual work will be kept down by the women, and will never become a world power. How differently, when compared with that of men of the same class, the female mind works, we see daily around us when we turn our eyes from the educated level down toward the half educated multitude. Here we are confronted with the woman who antagonizes serious medicine through her belief in patent medicines and quackery; the woman who undermines moral philosophy through her rushing into spiritualism and...
Page 164 - ... The salaries there depend upon two elements — the grade" of certificate and the number of years in the schools. Five dollars is added to each month's salary for each following year. This is what may be called a sliding scale; it works well. In the employment of teachers, Professor Munsterberg says: "There was never before a nation that gave the education of the young into the hands of the lowest bidder.
Page 144 - ... little thing. What has she really to gain from a revolution of her individual fate? Is there anything open to her which was closed so far? Between the social freedom of a German girl and a German wife there is not that gulf which separates the two groups, for instance, in France ; and yet the change from the single to the married life is an absolute one. Even in Germany, the joys of girlhood have something of the provisional in their character, like the temporary filling of a time of preparation...
Page 28 - Of things more serious than gum and gallantries, we have an honest attempt so to state the national traits which have excited most criticism, that they can be seen in their relations and with some qualification. Even of our begrimed politics he says : "The same complex historical reasons which have made the party spoils system and the boss system practically necessary forms of government have often brought representatives of very vulgar instincts into conspicuous political places; but that does not...
Page 9 - He does not care for education or art, for the public welfare or for justice, except so far as they mean money to him. Corrupt from top to toe, he buys legislation and courts and government ; and when he wants fun, he lynches innocent negroes on Madison Square in New York, or in the Boston Public Garden. He has his family home usually in a sky-scraper of twenty-four stories ; his business is founded on misleading advertisements ; his newspapers are filled with accounts of murders, and his churches...
Page 128 - He wanders in vain through the colleges to find the repulsive creature he expected, and the funny picture of the German comic papers changes slowly into an enchanting type by Gibson. And when he has made good use of his letters of introduction, and has met these new creations at closer range, has chatted with them before cosy open fires, has danced and bicycled and golfed with them, has seen their clubs and meetings and charities — he finds himself discouragingly...