02951cam a22003373u 4500 76007 UtSlPG 20260610134747.0 m cr n 260607r20251929utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 E151 Adams, James Truslow, 1878-1949 Our business civilization Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2025-05-04 Bob Taylor, Carla Foust, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) "Our Business Civilization: Some Aspects of American Culture" by James Truslow Adams is a collection of cultural essays written in the late 1920s. The book explores specific facets—especially the more troubling—of American society, focusing on the pervasive influence of business ideals on national culture. Rather than presenting a complete overview, Adams concentrates on examining how business values shape America’s social, ethical, and intellectual life. The opening of the book, including the preface and initial chapters, clarifies that the essays are revised versions of previously published magazine pieces, intentionally focusing on what the author sees as problematic tendencies within American society. Adams introduces the notion that, unlike European nations with multiple sources of social authority, America’s cultural life has become overwhelmingly dominated by business men and their pursuit of profit. He systematically contrasts this with countries like England, where older institutions—aristocracy, the church, and the professions—still mitigate the influence of commerce. The early chapters critically analyze the consequences of this business-centric civilization, such as narrowed social values, increased materialism, erosion of traditional professions, escalating costs of living, and dissolving ethical standards. Adams contends that while business has brought certain material benefits, the dominance of its ideals has undermined broader cultural and spiritual well-being, fostering a society more concerned with profit, consumption, and external badges of success than with intellectual or artistic pursuits. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: unknown: Albert & Charles Boni, 1929 National characteristics, American United States -- Civilization -- 1918-1945 United States -- Social conditions -- 1918-1932 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106000562451 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76007 116732 116732