According to the passage, Pessen indicates that all

According to the passage, Pessen indicates that all of the following were true of the very wealthy in the United States between 1825 and 1850 EXCEPT: Tocqueville, apparently, was wrong. Jacksonian America was not a fluid, egalitarian society where individual wealth and poverty were ephemeral conditions. At least so argues E. Pessen in his iconoclastic study of the very rich in the United States between line 1825 and 1850. 5 Pessen does present a quantity of examples, together with some refreshingly intelligible statistics, to establish the existence of an inordinately wealthy class. Though active in commerce or the professions, most of the wealthy were not self-made but had inherited family fortunes. In no sense mercurial, these great fortunes survived the financial panics that destroyed lesser ones. Indeed, in several cities the wealthiest one 10 percent constantly increased its share until by 1850 it owned half of the community’s wealth. Although these observations are true, Pessen overestimates their importance by concluding from them that the undoubted progress toward inequality in the late eighteenth century continued in the Jacksonian period and that the United States was a class-ridden, plutocratic society even before industrialization. They formed a distinct upper class., Many of them were able to increase their holdings., Some of them worked as professionals or in business., Most of them accumulated their own fortunes., Many of them retained their wealth in spite of financiaI upheavals.

2 Explanations

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Zhenghui Li

Hi, how do we know "B Many of them were able to increase their holdings" is true?
In the passage, it only says that "in several cities the wealthiest one percent constantly in creased its share ……". I can't get enough information to verify whether "many of " the very rich were able to increase.
So what does "many of them" precisely mean? Does it mean a certain range or just the vague "some" ?

Jun 20, 2018 • Comment

David Recine

That's a great question, Zhenghui. There are two things at play here. First, "several" can be a synonym for "many." "Many" itself means "a significant number." This makes it a less vague term than "some," since "some" simply means "an amount." ("Some" can be "few" or "many.")

In addition, the passage talks of:

"Pessen... concluding from them that the undoubted progress toward inequality in the late eighteenth
century continued in the Jacksonian period...."

If Pessen feels that income inequality continued, it's strongly implied that he feels a significant number of the rich got richer. So that's a secondary support to the idea that Pessen believed that "many" of the very wealthy were able o "increase their holdings," i.e. get richer.

Jun 26, 2018 • Reply

Zhenghui Li

Nice explanation. Tanks a lot :-)

Jun 26, 2018 • Reply

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Chris Lele

Oct 5, 2012 • Comment

Shubham Mahindru

what does "Jacksonian America was not a fluid," means ? Jacksonian America is eponym after president Andrew Jackson but what does "not a fluid" means ?

Jun 25, 2017 • Reply

Adam

Hi Shubham,

"Fluid" is an adjective describing, along with "egalitarian," the noun "society":

Jacksonian America was not a fluid, egalitarian society where individual wealth and poverty were ephemeral conditions.

In other words, society in Jacksonian America was not fluid or egalitarian if you were poor, you stayed poor; if you were rich, you stayed rich.

Jun 28, 2017 • Reply