Andrew Carnegie and the Discourse of Cultural Hegemony
Author(s): Alun Munslow
Source: Journal of American Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Aug., 1988), pp. 213-224
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Association for American Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27555005 .
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Andrew
Discourse
and the
Carnegie
of Cultural
Hegemony
ALUN MUNSLOW
as a function of discourse ? A discourse
change be explained
a mode of
is any language territory, whether
thinking,
talking or writing,
which
shared
between
its producer
and
presupposes
assumptions
consumer.
This means
that the relationship
between
and
language
is
a
nature
the
of
discourse.
This
upon
ideology
dependent
particular
Can cultural
offers
paper
on
comments
this
with
question
reference
to
the
formation
of
the post-bellum
American
business culture and its ideology by
examining
the written
works
of one of its leading exponents,
the industrialist
Andrew
from the assumption
that this business
Carnegie1. Working
was
culture
man's
1
Andrew
Other
2
reveal how
White
Beaconside,
Carnegie,
in
Staffs.,
Triumphant
of
a new
ones,
does
it helped
and Michel
is Lecturer
Munslow
Polytechnic,
interests
Populist-Producer
discourse
Both Hayden
Alun
the
serving
subordinate
group
ruling
an evaluation
create
Foucault
the Department
ST18
England,
Democracy
at
the
of
of
expense
the
business
that ideological
domination
?2
have claimed that culture can
of
Humanities,
North
Staffordshire
oAD.
(London,
(London,
Essays
1901), The Empire
The
on the
literature
scholarly
Populist-Producer
the past decade. Notable
are Lawrence
landmarks
Timely
1886); The Gospel
of Business
(London,
culture has expanded
of Wealth
And
1902).
over
markedly
Democratic
Promise
Goodwyn,
(New
and Community.
Class
The Industrial
York,
Revolution
in Lynn
1976); Alan Dawley,
G. Gutman,
Herbert
and Society
Culture
in
Mass.,
(Cambridge,
1976);
Work,
America
Susan E. Hirsch,
Roots
(New York,
Industrializing
1977);
of the American
Class: The Industrali^ation
in Newark,
1800?1860
Working
of Crafts
(Philadephia,
1978);
Class Community
in Industrial America:
and
John T. Cumbler,
Working
Work,
Leisure,
Struggle in two Industrial Cities,
1880?1930
Conn,
(Westport,
1979); David
Montgomery,
Worker's
Control
in America
Mass,
ed., American
(Cambridge,
Cantor,
1979); Milton
Working
Conn.,
Class
Culture:
1979); David
Explorations
Workers
Brody,
in American
in Industrial
Lahor
and Social History
(Westport,
(New York,
1980); Bruce
(Philadelphia,
1980); Paul G. Faler,
America
Laurie,
r8oo-i8jo
Working
People
of Philadelphia,
Mechanics
and Manufacturers
in the Early
Industrial
Revolution:
Lynn, Massachusetts,
The Roots
iy80-1860
Yeoman
Hahn,
(New York,
1981); Steven
of Southern Populism:
Farmers
and the Transformation
1850?1890
of the Georgia Upcountry,
(New York,
1983);
Francis G. Cou vares, The Remaking
:Class and Culture
in an Industrializing
of Pittsburgh
The Practice
City, 1877-1919
(New York,
Bensman,
1984); David
of Solidarity: American
Journal
of American
Studies,
22
(1988),
2, 213-224
Printed
in Great
Britain
8 AMS 22
Munslow
Alun
214
to the primary figurative modes
of discourse,
by reference
to this
the tropes of metonymy
Basic
and synecdoche.
particularly
to cultural formation
that ideology
is its assumption
rhetorical approach
even
is a function
the most
devoted
of discourse,
though White,
be explored
Foucault's
recognises
bound
up with
force.3 Assuming
business
of cultural practices,
of the poetic foundation
in the world
and is
that
discourse
resides
insight
of the theory
practitioner
of
and the imposition
property
power
ownership,
in a dominant
social formation,
that power is embedded
like
spokesmen
Carnegie,
working
to maintain
the
authority
of
a particular
cultural practices
class, did so through a range of discursive
In the Gramscian
that contended with others for dominance.4
of
model
Hat
Finishers
the House
3
in theNineteenth
of Labor
: The
Century
Workplace,
(New York,
1987). Alan Trachtenberg
were
in the late nineteenth
century
(New York,
Incorporation
of America
The Fall of
(Urbana,
1985); David
Montgomery,
the State, and American
Labor Activism,
186J-1921
is most
clear that the two centres of opposition
see The
the Populists
and the working
classes,
1982).
at the College
de
Lecture
"The Order
of Discourse,"
Foucault,
Inaugural
2nd December
France,
1970. The Archaeology
(New York,
1972); The Order
of Knowledge
Sciences
An
and
(New York,
of Things:
Archaeology
of the Human
1973); Madness
A History
Civilisation:
of Insanity in the Age
of Reason (New York,
1973); The Birth of the
Michel
Clinic
Practice:
Selected
Foucault,
(New York,
1975); Michel
Counter-Memory,
Language,
and Interviews,
ed. by D. F. Bouchard
and Punish:
Essays
(New York,
1977); Discipline
The Birth of Prison
Selected Interviews and Other
(New York,
1979); Power /Knowledge;
in
The Historical
Writings
(New York,
1980); Hay den White,
Metahistory:
Imagination
in the
Nineteenth
"The
Value
of Narrativity
Century
(Baltimore,
Europe
1973),
of Reality,"
Critical
1980), 5-27, "The Question
Theory, 7, 1, (Autumn
in Contemporary
Historical
and Theory, 23, 1, (1984),
History
Theory,"
in Cultural Criticism,
Baltimore,
1?33, Tropics of Discourse:
1978), "Structuralism
Essays
and Popular
;
Culture,"
7, (1974) 759-75
Journal of Popular Culture,
4
insists that in order
Antonio
The Prison Notebooks
Gramsci,
(London,
1982). Gramsci
Representation
of Narrative
to
is how
the processes
of cultural
formation
what must be explained
it happens
" explore
that there co-exist
and currents
of philosophical
these
how
many
systems
thought,
currents
are born,
how
and why
in the process
of diffusion
they are diffused,
they
fracture
lines and in certain directions"
(327). In his section on the "The
along certain
on
and "Notes
Italian History,"
in The Prison Notebooks
Gramsci
in detail. Beginning
of hegemony
the complexities
the crucial
role
by noting
a social
in the process
of the intellectual
of establishing
Gramsci
the
offers
hegemony
are the dominant
central
that the intellectuals
the
insight
groups'
"exercising
deputies
subaltern
functions
of social hegemony
and political
(12). The functions
government"
to the
consent
"The
include
'spontaneous'
given
by the great masses...
general
on social
is
direction
life by the dominant
fundamental
this consent
group;
imposed
caused by the prestige...
which
of its
the dominant
group
'historically'
enjoys because
"
in the world
and function
of production.
of the
The
second major
function
position
is to operate
intellectuals
the "apparatus
of state coercive
which
power
'legally' "
on those groups who do not 'consent'
or
enforces
either actively
discipline
passively.
as mechanical
as it at first
The
is not of course
establishment
of a social hegemony
Intellectual"
describes
sounds.
Consent
and
repression
exist
together
and
hegemony
is moral
as well
as
Andrew
cultural
Andrew
change
an
was
Carnegie
according
industrial bourgeoisie.5
wealthy
Foucault
Although
to
exterior
the
the
emphasises
text,
White
Hayden
organic
in as much
intellectual
constraints
chooses
of
to
z 15
Hegemony
of the new fundamental
to the interests
he functioned
and Cultural
Carnegie
as
class of the
relations
power
the
emphasise
early
the
that the theory of tropes provides
position
forms of historical
and cultural
basis for
imagination
In this
exercised
any given period of a society's development.
during
manner
the exercise of power in each historical epoch ismediated
through
Foucaultian
narratological
the
classifying
infrastructure
with
the tropes
tropic
representing
level
of
White
has tried to marry
consciousness.6
figurative
deep
that
theory of tropes with Foucault's
study of history by arguing
the
its dominant
For
economic.
compromise.
resort
groups
masses
it is
and subordinate
between
dominant
there is also
every conflict
groups
when
there is a crisis of authority
that the dominant
It is only at moments
to coercion.
describes
the relationship
between
the
therefore,
Hegemony,
of society
groups
through
social
consciousness.
Among
through
significantly
use.
and the elite is language
the masses
5
a fundamental
are those among
intellectuals
Organic
and
his
the dominant
politics
the most
and
economics
significant
but most
link between
are
class, and created
by it, who
and character
and conscious
of the ends it is pursuing.
its functioning
Gramsci
"
was very
on the
as an organic intellectual:
of the entrepreneur
He
precise
special position
not all entrepreneurs,
at least an elite
must
of men_If
be an organiser
of masses
to be an
of society
in general,
them must have the capacity
amongst
organiser
including
to the state organism,
all its complex
of
because
of the need
services,
organism
right up
to the expansion
most
to create the conditions
of their own class"
favourable
(Gramsci,
can achieve
are the fundamental
who
groups
op. cit.,
5-6). The
hegemony
only
or the bourgeoisie.
in the achievement
the proletariat
The central question
of
classes
is established.
It is
how
intellectual
and ideological
is precisely
leadership
hegemony
aware
of
clearly
a
not
hegemonic
is in part
class
simple
cement. How
to be
found
to act as the
of ideology
be achieved?
The answer
harmony
of language
and discourse.
Gramsci
preceded
in reinforcing
the role of discourse
cultural domination.
For
alliance.
It is, rather,
can a
genuine
in the nature
the function
ideological
in his stress upon
"
is assumed
of language,
that is, the
Great
Gramsci,
by the general question
importance
a
of collectively
climate,"
op. cit., 349.
(his emphasis),
question
attaining
single cultural
out recently
the nature of the available
benchmarks
discourse
As Jackson Lears pointed
Foucault
that which
is allowable,
It may
and de-legitimises
certain
lines of discursive
argument.
to articulate
it impossible
their problems,
for potentially
groups
oppositional
of Cultural
"The
Problems
and Possi
Lears,
T.J.Jackson
Concept
Hegemony:
is the essence
Historical
The American
bilities,"
Review, 90, 3 (June,
1985), 569?70. This
make
in discourse,
is constituted
The
individual
and because
interpellation.
to the structure
of the discourse,
the
is homologously
related
ideology
in ideology.
is thereby
constructed
subject
6
a different
and equally
mode
of consciousness,
which
Each
trope represents
legitimate
to characterise
has in turn culturally
formative
It is, therefore,
consequences.
possible
to different
cultural
of particular
historical
according
linguistic
epochs
practices
the process
the structure
of
of
protocols.
analytical
of
White
model
maintains
the
theory
that
that
the
historicised
language
is culturally
of culture
study
constitutive.
requires
as
8-2
its
ziG
Alun Munslow
to characterize
to its dominant
possible
the cultural
of any historical
epoch
practices
argues
tropical protocol. Like Foucault, White
to difference with particular
cultural attitudes
according
that the tropes determined
to the changes in the treatment
reference
and
nineteenth
centuries.
White
in the eighteenth
of the insane
that
maintains
the
treatment
of
the
insane,
are the objects of difference, was the result of society thinking about
of
substitution
them in the mode of metonymy
through the conceptual
an
a part for the whole which
one
to
of its parts
reduces
that is,
object
who
as socially
them
viewing
of
advent
the
"humane"
nineteenth
because
century
they
of
trope
separate
were
which
as
viewed
part
of
For American
society,
from
discourse
of the culture
characterised
a
of
the
in
the
insane
the
more
became
mode,
linguistic
or
emphasises
continuity
objects by
to refer to its essence. So the insane became
a variation
within
one
cultural
development
to which
it is possible
the extent
therefore,
entities. With
contiguous
treatment
between
synecdoche,
the part of an object
taking
though
the
predominantly
m?tonymie
of the new order. To
put
the
norm.7
test of White
and Foucault
is,
to trace a shift in Carnegie's
to a
synecdochic
it plainly,
construction
did Carnegie
impose
a
7
It isWhite's
loc. cit., 772-73.
and Popular
"Structuralism
Culture,"
position
White,
is
but
base nor superstructure
neither
is possessed
that language
by the economic
consciousness
between
of mediation
is the instrument
to both,
and language
anterior
who
would
for the cultural materialist
of divergence
is the point
This
and being.
the
for White
of tropic determination.
is a function
that ideology
However,
dispute
or
the
that
insists
White
for all cultural
is
the
basis
function
trope
activity.
poetic
of emplotment,
act then offers us only a limited
range of modes
linguistic
prefigurative
sense of our culture
to
events
and make
with which
and ideology
explain
argument
there are three parole
discourse
of narrative
model
In White's
(1-42).
Metahistory,
and the ideological
of explanation
implications
argument
by emplotment,
strategies
The
of representation.
there are four modes
each strategy
of the first two. Within
or
at the conscious
are elective
in White's
the elements
between
grid
relationships
or most
affinities
elective
The
writer.
so-called
choice
of the historical
unconscious
likely
relationships
are:
Ideological
Trope
Emplotment
Argument
Metaphor
Romantic
Formalist
Metonymy
Tragic
Comic
Mechanist
Radicalism
Organicist
Contextualist
Conservativism
Implications
Synecdoche
Irony
Satirical
Anarchism
Liberalism
are determined
of explanation
pr?figuration
by their tropological
strategies
treatment
of
recent previous
at the level of the langue. The most
operating
in Richard
to
be
found
is
of writing
theories
White
and his narratological
J.
history
and
the Turner
Ellis
and Alun
Thesis,"
"Narrative,
of
Munslow,
Journal
Myth
American
Culture,
9, 2, (1986),
9-26.
The
of
writer's
the data
Andrew
syncedochic
reading
his
toward
attitude
nature
the
?
that
a
a
social
from
shift
terms,
movement
Carnegie's
conservative
in the structure
a
; the
emplotment
acknowledged
to
argument
and cognitive
from
model
explain
in
devices
dangerously
a
to
radical
position.
has a plot which
is
model
every narrative
of the hero over his environment.
The hero of
to White's
According
determined
by the power
business
Carnegie's
was
no
White's
Carnegie
organicist
; and the result of these narrative
change
ideological
an
to
mechanistic
a comic
which
to
in order
power?
to shifts
to
tragic
even
labour,
democracy,
by reference
is, from
issues of the
unionised
agrarianism,
of the laws of social development
in effect
safe
populists
narrative
Carnegie's
nature
and
entrepreneurial
and political
groups
oppositional
that this task be undertaken
requires
-
like
in
particularly
new
the
217
Hegemony
development,
it be
of American
and
individualism
the new distribution
of economic
rationalise
of
certain
culture,
producer
historical
whether
"difference,"
or toward
heroes
on American
and Cultural
Carnegie
longer
was
discourse
an
appropriate
the
figure
The
entrepreneur.8
the
because
late
hero
pioneer
nineteenth
century
Act never materialised.
As a
by the Homestead
agrarian utopia promised
the political
crisis evidenced
result
by the rise of an oppositional
industrial bourgeoisie.
the
culture
threatened
emergent
Populist-Producer
a
for
the
in the
existed
As Carnegie
realised,
potential
tragic emplotment
new
order
dialectical
its heroic
?
militant
cleavages
conflict.
a new
for
and
who
hero
trades
create
could
not
unions,
wealth
only
was
consensus
achieved
of men
hero
businessman
order
in
My
to
and ensure
experience
labor
and
a truer
conception
on
been
to
trades
that
reconcile
Triumphant
Democracy,
of
end
a
the
contradictions
This
class
cohesion
of
and
a
m?tonymie
to what
emplotment,
within
the mode of
comic
harmonised
of democracy.
emplotment
culture.
Carnegie's
within
reconciliation
the
is
new
is evident
unionism:
trades-unions,
They
certainly
capital.
of the relations
of
8
Carnegie,
the
a more
produces
the triumph
has
to
that
needed
views
Carnegie's
that
maintains
White
and
in the corporate age
desire to
Carnegie's
from
revealed as a potentially
tragic cultural
pr?figuration
be a comic emplotment
inWhite's
taxonomy would
synecdoche.
reconciliation
social
switch
his
by
farmers
also
but
The heritage of Jeffersonian
individualism
and its democracy.
be fatal to the Republic
promote
in America's
lay
the acknowledgement
consensus.
could
It
silverite
state required
rise of the corporate
The
elite.
entrepreneurial
442.
are beneficial
both
the whole,
and give
them
the working-men
than they could
otherwise
and labor
upon
educate
capital
a
2i8
A.lun
Munslow
The
ablest
form.
the
voice
made,
front
who
case
Carnegie's
patronising
for
the
Only
this
among
the
the
front
that
these
in
without
labor
through
of
the men
will
men,
arises
demagogue
chiefly
their
real
which
every
to be
works
come
eventually
to
the
employers.9
was
unions
trades
ignorant
the men
of
organization
the best
leaders,
to
complaisance,
unionism.
of
the power
expressed....
the natural
by which
and confer
freely with
to
knows
who
who
man,
regards
capital
ignorant
so much
to embitter
relations
between
does
organisation
A proper
be
come
eventually
workman
intelligent
but
the blatant
; and
employed
of proper
lack
workmen
the
helpless,
of labor
enemy
and
can
is
capital
natural
employer
from
the
best
is not
organisations_It
his brother
as
and
"blatant
thus
a
produce
man"
ignorant
in
couched
of
language
business
pliant,
and
the
orientated
"ignorant
demagogue"
the comity
between
doubt
labor and capital. This
language
a discursive
shift from a potentially
evidences
tragic to a comic cultural
and was a rejection of the agrarian, individualistic
democracy
emplotment,
inspired by Carnegie's
reading of Jefferson, in favour of a new corporatism
would
to
essential
the
In White's
of
authority
new
the
order.
uses
as a
the writer
is couched
argument
a
was
is
law.
For
it
of
which
causal
Carnegie
premise
of society.
laws that ultimately
determined
the nature
to
view of poverty was a further expression
of his attitude
model
the
the major
syllogism,
Darwinian
Carnegie's
social stability,
Spencerian
creators
but
philosophy.
should
be
a view
it was
Carnegie
Although
the
role
which
he was
model,
a modification
of
required
insisted that his heroic wealth
realist
to admit
enough
that
not
own
So he
and poverty had to be rationalised.
everyone
property,
set up "all conquering
as
the
ultimate
His
rationale
education.10
poverty"
"
: wealth
for the maldistribution
of wealth was unequivocal
is a curse to
could
young
poor
and
men,
and were
boys,
a
poverty
"12
schools?poverty.
sternest
in that
in
But
"The
blessing."11
trained
to
order
was
millionaires...
procure
to appeal
started
but most
a
efficient
harmonised
of
as
all
culture
to
the qualities
of personal
Carnegie
again
impelled
in
found
the
classless
In
hero.
this
fashion he
enterprise
entrepreneurial
some kind of
that poverty
indicated
rejected Herbert
Spencer's notion
unfitness.
Indeed, the true hero was the poor boy who,
through pursuit
of
the
was
Carnegie
process.
of
Gospel
His
11
12
was
Carnegie,
Gospel
Carnegie,
Empire
Carnegie,
Gospel
Carnegie,
Empire
able
to
compelled
insistence
9
10
Success,
that
55.
of Wealth,
109.
of Business,
wealth.
this
modify
poverty
115-22.
of Wealth,
113.
of Business,
to achieve
was
a
Ultimately,
mechanistic
positive
good
however,
cause-and-effect
had
to be matched
Andrew
a mechanistic
for
organicist
economic
z 19
Hegemony
This
shift in
progress.
in
of
his
substitution
taxonomy,
and
social
in terms of White's
is revealed,
emphasis
an
in universal
belief
by his
and Cultural
Carnegie
within
argument
narrative.
his
The
in a
argument
relationships
or ideas that serve to
instead to the principles
sense, appealing
In this sense Carnegie was
processes
integrate historical
ideologically.
determinism
of poverty
able to deny the mechanical
except as a spur to
as
Darwinian
well as, by implication,
advancement,
biological
personal
denies
organicist
mechanical
of
to appeal
and instead
determinism,
nature
the
for
search
causal
to the supposed
and harmonic
organic
society.
bourgeois
the nature of Carnegie's
shift of signification
argument
through
a clear modification
which
of the tenets of Social Darwinism
reached
This
was
The
in the Reform
fulfilment
their ultimate
analysis which
precepts of "natural
Sumnerian
of the Progressive
Era.
Darwinism
an
absolute
of the
rejection
required
was
and
"equality"
rights," "liberty"
Jeffersonian
to Carnegie.
the signifiers,
Whilst
Carnegie
retaining
unacceptable
their
Natural
selection
for
resulted not in
signification.
Carnegie
changed
the survival of the fittest and the accretion of wealth permanently
in the
hands
of
or
cannot
are allowed
selection
neither
since
warfare
induced
"13
"14
exist.
Reform
advocating
illustration
classic
eighteenth
and
were
of
explanation
process
heterogeneity.
concluding
heterogeneous
[in
impossible
if economic
class
any
In effect Carnegie
that natural
argued
"
a
uninfluenced
society,
democracy
by birth
This
state
Sumner's
replaced
of
economic
for survival.
struggle
Sumner's mechanistic
as well. Despite
his
Darwinism
but also
appeal to the
in reality Carnegie was pushing on toward
in
than virtually
any other businessman
surface
a
within
Biological
analogies
society,
of
the
late
the m?tonymie
consciousness
deep
nineteenth
centuries,
explained
by mechanistic
early
modified
reality.
by
Carnegie
essence
of
The
the
from
passed
actually
Carnegie
that
is
in
Darwinism.
of
all matter
whereby
wealth
permanently
by the unequal
not only rejected
Carnegie
denied Spencer's
philosophy
rhetoric of Social Darwinism,
further
meliorism.
He went
arguments,
of
aristocracy
remain
free play.
a classless
produced
rank
"An
few:
wealth
America]...
laws
the
rise
of
the
to the homogeneous,
of
development.
path
upward
13
Democracy,
Triumphant
Carnegie,
15
89.
Gospel
of Wealth,
Carnegie,
to
Spencerian
a state
of
reversed
trust
and
"15
Carnegie's
366.
this
was
an
produce
Darwinism
to
homogeneity
fundamental
"an
is clearly
need
organicist
was
the
evolution
another
to
view
14
Ibid.,
one
of
premise,
from
step
society
365.
the
in the
as
a
2 2o
Alun M unslow
ideal
his conclusion
that the corporate
totality necessitated
as
of "the organism
known
human
benefit
the thrifty members
harmonised
must
"16
society.
Economic
the Gospel
of Wealth,
the
paternalism,
was
the essence
scientism remained, but
appeal to Darwinian
The mechanistic
for explaining
argument
as
development
InWhite's
are
an
into
transmuted
toward
tending
tropological
in
revealed
the ultimate
strategy
that
coherence
and
organicist
model
the
heart
of
evolution. The reductive
in a highly modified
form.
had been
social change
accounted
towards
the
for
cultural
harmony.
the ideological
attitude
the writer's
at
notion
stewardship
of cultural
of discourse
implications
of
pace
social
and
change
is most
ends of civil
in his views
society. Carnegie's
ideological
position
on the administration
of wealth. Given
his
to
of
metonymy
adjustment
linguistic mode
tropological
and his congruent
shift from a tragic to a comic emplotment
synecdoche
of the entrepreneurial
hero in American
and the rejection of
history,
in favour of an organicist
mechanistic
laws to explain
social change
shown
clearly
from
the
Carnegie was pushed away from what inWhite's
explanation,
terminology
a
In
would
be
radical to a conservative
potentially
ideological
position.
a
a
an
terms
offers
defence "not of
idealized past but
White's
conservative
"17
of the present social dispensation.
The conservative
defends the status
quo
by
as an
society
constructing
unity
organic
radicals
that
claim
has
yet
for an organic intellectual like Carnegie
any
Consequently,
in any oppositional
residual culture of Jeffersonian
radicalism
found
his actions during
groups had to be excised from public discourse. Whilst
the 1892 Homestead
dispute, when he allowed Henry Clay Frick to use
to be achieved.
Pinkerton
to break
agents
physical
discourse
Carnegie's
repression,
a culture
the strike, may
structured
in the ideological
have
signified
the
continued
dominance
the power
struggle
to
of
create
of his entrepreneurial
class.
The
proper
in
of wealth was summarised most famously
"
that
wealth
should
be
considered
surplus
administration
Carnegie's Gospel
as a sacred trust
of Wealth,
to be administered
hands it falls,
by those into whose
their
the
the
lives, for
good of
community" [My emphasis.]18 Perhaps
during
the group most vilified by Carnegie for its differentness was the unworthy
poor.
His
primary
through
practice
16
18
Ibid.,
Carnegie,
rationalisation
for
the
unequal
distribution
of
wealth
as
the
society was that rich and poor could be reconciled
of stewardship.
As he said, "Under
its sway [the
the notion
of the stewardship
of wealth] we shall have an ideal State, in
end of civic
17
White,
86.
Gospel
of Wealth,
54.
Metahistorv,
zz.
Andrew
which
the surplus wealth
of
property
The
the
of the few will
because
many,
to administer
wealth.
for
of charity,
was
Carnegie
clear
absolutely
"19
good.
the most
being
that
the
the
sense,
common
the
221
Hegemony
in the best
become,
administered
a denial
to this was
corollary
and Cultural
Carnegie
dubious
way
members
only
of the poor who could be assisted were those who could help themselves.
The capitalist mind of Carnegie was summarised when he said aphoristi
"Those
cally
of
worthy
the
Among
assistance...
in
groups
dangerous
seldom
assistance."20
require
were
not
society
the
only
unworthy
poor but also errant farmers. In 1891 Carnegie addressed the issue of silver
:"our... Republic
and Populists
is boldly plunging
deeper and deeper into
"
the
He
of
dangers
silver
farmers
warned
there
coinage...
and
his
wider
is trouble
readership
wherever
"
that
The
is silver.
there
man
who
to
tries
is twin brother
[free silver] in the hope of profit...
the express train for the chance of sharing its
wreck
this disaster
bring about
to him who
would
is a wrecker
contents_He
and
His
speculator.
interests
are
to
opposed
"21
of the toiling masses.
The implied alliance of his class with
a
a few
little
that of the toiling masses
hollow,
rings
given his behaviour
later during the Homestead
Strike. Because
months
the primary obstacle
the interests
to
the
a
of
creation
and
significations
live and experience
cultural
their
is
class
hegemonic
practices
relations
the
need
which
through
to the total
to
the
incorporate
subordinate
classes
social formation,
the
to
had
conservative
articulated
absorb
ideology
by Carnegie
them from opposing
in a manner which would
the
such groups
prevent
on
views
and
the
distribution
and
of
class
its
administration
hegemonic
dominant
wealth.
such a procedure
of
by the simple measure
operated
as
or
subordinate
groups
uniquely
specific
reprehensible
Like
farmers and political
the undeserving
silverite
poor,
Carnegie
isolating
dangerous.
were
radicals
as
constituted
also
potential
destroyers
of
social
harmony.
in the popular magazine
The Forum in August
1886, to comment
Writing
that summer,
he produced
the labour riots earlier
his classic
upon
:
statement of ideological
incorporation
the
Following
foreign
excitement
was
a
is not
labor
fitting
justly
which
with
riot
19
Ibid.,
Carnegie,
Chicago
one
and
in
opinion
public
after
organization
but
volunteered
disorder,
labor
20
of Business,
work
who
Milwaukee,
thought
to execute
their
revolutionary
their doings,
with
nevertheless
12.
Empire
the mad
and
opportunity
chargeable
discredited
came
there
disturbances,
in
temporarily
with
promptitude
all sympathy
21
labor
anarchists
55?61.
Ibid.,
17.
of
they
a handful
saw
of
in
the
Although
plans.
of labor
the cause
The
these
outbreaks.
by
not
another
only disclaimed
to enroll
itself
into armed
222
Alun Munslow
force
not
should
order,
were
necessary,
proof
the masses
of men,
threatened
for
of
the maintenance
convincing
proof,
is seriously
country
in the educated
but
down
classes,
are determined
industrious
workers,
to
death
the
by
the
thrower.
order
of
not
armies,
by
citizens
orderly
steady
under
the
Rioters
institutions,
thus
The
not
from
known
as
closed
down
work
"mad
However,
labour
legitimate
peaceful
"from
significantly
and
the
alternative
to
of
swift
down
; not
standing
and
peaceful
and
that
including
irresistible
the
force,
and
to...the
with
in organised
masses
"the
of
open
interpretations
elements
and
down
shot
in the reader's mind
citizens
orderly
means
anarchists"
organisations
capitalist
professions
ranks
lowest
by overwhelming
masses
of
by the
of...foreign
invites comparison
are certain doubtful
of
only
this
and
sentiment.22
public
revolutionary
plans"
is implying
Carnegie
"masses
in the
people,
a distance,
but
the
down
from
capitalist
constitutes
combined
influence
whose
discourse
not
of
the peace
and
the
above
troops
brought
of all classes...
reader.
to
is another
overlooked_It
that whenever
the very
through
to maintain
it. Bomb-throwing
will
be remorselessly
assembling...
government
working-man,
democratic
Carnegie's
to
be
if further
all
"their
what
labour.
of men"
and
but most
classes,"
steady
working-man,"
"
"
and classless fashion in remorselessly
respond in truly democratic
down rioters and bomb-throwers.
shooting
Carnegie's
linking of demo
cratic
institutions
with
and "public
sentiment"
opinion"
"public
constitutes
the reader as a unified subject in conflict with that which exists
the text. Through
outside
of his discourse
the power
is
Carnegie
"
"
to
masses
to
the
their
culture
for
that
of
attempting
persuade
exchange
the hegemonic
class. The
therefore,
1890s may be interpreted,
using
will
Gramsci's
sectors
had
as
terminology,
of American
to be sanitised
The
a
of
period
passive
revolution
some
whereby
excluded as illegitimate
and
society were deliberately
in the best interests of the hegemonic
class.23
world
view was m?tonymie.
Its reductive
certainty
Jeffersonian
classic eighteenth
laws of politics
and economic
century
as
viewed
human
atomistic
After
relationships
contiguities.
and
science
indus
and tragedy was
the potential
for cultural cataclysm
trialization, however,
to be conceived
real if it continued
in these terms. The
very
22
23
142-43.
of Wealth,
Gospel
Carnegie,
term passive
The
revolution is defined
masses
are absorbed
and neutralised
the hegemonic
opposing
class
reformism
inspired
class.
to
A
as a form of hegemony
by Gramsci
thus preventing
by the bourgeoisie,
o? passive revolution is essentially
period
establish
a
spurious
consensus
over
the
the
whereby
them from
a
of
period
ends of civil
the
results
from
expansive hegemony which
masses
and
the
creation
the
of
the
of
the
interests
class,
by
hegemonic
adoption
genuine
are
of the people
revolution large sections
will.
In the period
of passive
of a popular
means
the
from
the
excluded
by
system
adopted
through
deliberately
hegemonic
intellectuals
like Carnegie.
See Gramsci,
105?20.
58-9,
government.
It
is differentiated
from
an
rise of the
Andrew
and Cultural
Carnegie
zu,
Hegemony
a new conception
state demanded
of the role of the individual
corporate
on
how social change and the ends of civil society could
and a consensus
the dominant
be explained. As an organic intellectual representing
corporate
to
constitute
the new
the
cultural
culture Carnegie
imperative
expressed
world of industrial capitalism. He was forced to seek out rationalisations
that
allow
would
his
to
class
entrepreneurial
and
modify
re-draw
cultural
the
discourse
map.
synecdochic
popular
Carnegie's
of American
of
his
the
necessary
emplotment
re-working
produced
a
new
and
his modified
for
social
argument
history,
explaining
change
of social
in
role
this
process
Carnegie's
complex
ideological
position.
was
to
disassemble
elements
oppositional
change through re-signification
Jeffersonian
of the residual
a new
a
connection
of
an
Success,
Darwinism,
of
praxis
ethic
to
each
linking
democracy.
model
how
illustrates
use,
language
the cultural
Gospel
and Reform
republican
of White's
between
a modified
as
manifest
triumphant
application
them within
and re-articulate
of Wealth
Gospel
and
resurgent
This
a
order
bourgeois
of self-help,
a
culture
discourse
predicates
and
power
knowledge,
ideology.
to acknowl
of cultural change forces historians
language model
are
and ideology
and that the ideological
interrelated,
edge that discourse
"
"
as
of
discourse
much
be
read
may
any
implications
through a text's
structure
as
traditional
historical
methods
of textual
linguistic
through
White's
and verification. Whilst White's
that language is the
argument
comparison
not
terrain of ideological
of his position
the
is
weakness
disputed,
struggle
It simply
in
of
the absolute primacy
remains in its insistence
textuality.
:
case
to create a
in this
ignores human agency
Carnegie's will knowingly
dominant
culture
through
contribution
is most
a preferred
ideological
discourse.
his
is where
This
Gramsci's
the recognition
that although
cultural
important:
in
also
reveals
the ebb
be
manifest
discourse
dominance
discourse,
may
and flow of an economically
driven cultural struggle.
of his readership with
What Carnegie was about was the identification
constituted
orderly,
of wealth
represented,
creation
of
intellectual
principles
embarked
upon
and
a
the
process
As
of
of
appraisal
true
social formation
were
all directed
structure.
value
popular
his
upon
change
the dominant
ideological
a national
Carnegie
social
acceptable
for his class. For
these
based
position
a
that Carnegie
the
towards
organic
bourgeois
cultural
what
administration
transformation
groups.
he participated
in the ideological
of oppositional
absorption
as
of the
The image of Andrew Carnegie
the classic representative
Robber
Barons'
whereby
force
and
striving
a status-stricken
to ensure
middle-class
their
over
dominance
ignores
the
a reluctant
complexity
not
labour
only
of
2 24
Alun Munslow
his discourse,
in the constitution
but also its function
of a hegemony
as
as
both
cultural
well
economic
possessing
unity. Although
Carnegie's
passive revolution was only fully realised during the so called Age of Reform,
on the way to it
the most powerful
became
Carnegie
interpreter of the
emergent
business
culture.