Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T10:24:28.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Inequality in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Clayne Pope
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
Stanley L. Engerman
Affiliation:
University of Rochester, New York
Robert E. Gallman
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Get access

Summary

THE THREE GREAT QUESTIONS

Alexis de Tocqueville, Frederick Jackson Turner, and Simon Kuznets have set out the fundamental questions that dominate consideration of inequality in the nineteenth century. Their questions, posed in 1835, 1893, and 1955 respectively, have not yet been definitively answered. Nor are answers close at hand, for these questions pose difficult methodological issues, relate to changing values concerning inequality and economic opportunity, and require quantitative evidence on poorly measured distributions of income and wealth as well as information about economic opportunity. Yet each of the questions retains its interest and relevance to judgments today about economic equality in the nineteenth century.

From May 1831 to February 1832 Alexis de Tocqueville, in the company of Gustave de Beaumont, made his epic journey through North America, traveling west across New York to the frontier in Michigan, then northeast into Canada, down to Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, west to Cincinnati, Nashville, and Memphis, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, overland to Washington, and back to New York City. Tocqueville and Beaumont were entertained by various levels of society, which they interviewed extensively, and observed with dispassion and insight the structure of this strange new democracy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Kuznets, Simon, “Economic Growth and Inequality,” American Economic Review, 45 (1955).Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis, Journey to America, ed. Mayer, J. P. (New Haven, 1960).Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America, ed. Mayer, J. P. (Garden City, N.Y., 1969).Google Scholar
Turner, Frederick Jackson, The Frontier in American History (New York, 1920).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×