The culture of the late 18th century allowed the creation of the United States - question is would our present culture allow the same?
By the late 18th century, the American colonies were characterized by a rapidly growing population, reaching 2.5 million inhabitants by 1775, approximately one-third of Great Britain’s population.
While primarily rural, a few cities began to flourish.
Barriers between the colonies were steadily reduced, fostering a sense of commonality, though individual colonies maintained distinct characteristics and identities.
This period also saw a “consumer revolution” with increased availability of goods like textiles, furniture, and exotic beverages, enabling colonists to pursue ideals of refinement and gentility.
American culture during this time was shaped by English common law, Christian values, and Enlightenment ideals, which emphasized individual rights, private property, and personal responsibility.
This cultural foundation allowed for the integration of diverse practices, provided they aligned with these core principles.
The Great Awakening, a religious revival beginning in the mid-18th century, further invigorated America’s religious culture, making it more energetic, diverse, and independent, particularly outside of New England.
Perspectives
Distinct regional cultures with British influences
The United States in the 1770s was not a homogeneous entity, with distinct folkways developing from different regions of England that influenced settlers’ priorities and worldviews in various colonies, such as New England and Virginia.
each State, for the most part, reflected the church they attended
meaning you would not see the same churches in each state
While British cultural traditions remained strong, especially in coastal cities, the diverse European immigrants, religious movements, and frontier experiences contributed to societies that were increasingly different from those in Europe.
The New England colonies, primarily settled by Puritans from East Anglia, had a strong cohesion due to their shared British Isles and Dutch origins, common religion, cultural practices, and intermarrying.
New York City’s cultural legacy was significantly influenced by its Dutch colonial past, fostering a diverse population and a unique blend of influences that shaped it into a cosmopolitan center.
Emergence of a new, separate American culture
The early American settlers created a new culture in America that was distinct from the ‘high culture’ of Britain, driven by their unique motivations and the perilous journey they undertook.
The American colonies were appealing to certain British political factions who viewed them as a more purified version of the English Republican tradition, which they believed had become corrupted by the aristocratic system in 1770s.
Puritan culture, which significantly influenced American society from Plymouth Rock through the 19th century, was characterized by extreme repression regarding sexuality and work, emphasizing a strong work ethic from a young age.
The founding mythology of America, particularly from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, suggests a supernatural connection between wealth and morality, where richness was seen as a divine reward and poverty as punishment for sin.
Homeshooling was quite common when there was not a school or the local one-room school building was full.
The Colonial brain power of the late 18th century was much stronger than any state or jurisdiction today.
To form our Constitution, Samuel Adams had more than 400 books he bought in Europe on government, politics, and philosophy shipped to the Colonies where many of the Founding Fathers read them. Some apparently read them all - they didn’t have forever, how long would it take you to read 400 books?
as an example, take George Washington’s 110 rules titled "Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation" as a transcribed penmanship exercise - just remember he was 14 when he transcribed these rules, what are 4 years transcribing never mind reading today?
Charles "Chuck" Park argues that Americans celebrate the Founding Fathers but have lost knowledge of the classical culture - satire, music, drama, and art - that nurtured their character and sustained the fight for independence, a standard the speaker says is needed for today’s struggle against a “British oligarchical empire,” which he links to President Trump’s “new golden age.”
It contrasts an imperial view of man as a “clever beast” with a Renaissance view of man as creative, then traces resistance to the post-1688 Anglo-Dutch system through Leibniz and the English “Scriblerus” circle (Swift, Gay, Pope).
It highlights Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Gay’s Beggar’s Opera as anti-oligarchical weapons, and describes Handel, Moravian music, and early American singing societies. In art and science, it presents Benjamin West and Charles Willson Peale shaping American identity, museums, and patriot portraiture, and closes with Franklin’s response to the first manned balloon flight: “What good is a newborn baby?”
Chapters
00:00 Why Culture Matters
01:46 JFK Trump and Big Vision
03:24 Empire Versus Renaissance Man
08:43 Satire as a Weapon
09:18 Gullivers Travels Breakdown
16:36 Beggars Opera and Politics
17:35 Music That Made Citizens
24:08 Theater Comes to America
25:57 Benjamin West Reinvents Art
31:06 Charles Willson Peale Patriot Artist
33:20 Peale Museum Science and Art
36:11 West Students Shape America
39:46 Franklin Poem and Genius
42:59 From Balloons to Moonshots
