Though it may be said that, because of the peculiarly social rather than political texture of American history, America is the home of social history, it remains regrettably true that American social history is often written in a void. By this I mean that the mechanical practices of sociological categorization or, on the other hand, the habits of illegitimate generalization, have been leaving a broad imprint on the works of otherwise useful historians and sociologists. In this respect Baltzell’s book is rather unique: though the author is a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, his book may prove to be an important source for American history rather than remain a sociological monograph of restricted scope. Meanwhile it provides its readers with many interesting, if not always significant, details about a partly unique segment of American society.
This adverb partly cannot, however, be emphasized enough. Ever since the thirties there has been a curious tendency among intellectuals and writers in this country to attribute to the remaining bastions of the American financial and social “aristocracy,” particularly in Boston and Philadelphia, patrician elements of power and prestige which they no longer possess. Perhaps the most important portion of Baltzell’s thesis is that, no matter how tightly knit the Philadelphia “aristocracy” is, its political power and, in some instances, even its social prestige have been on the wane for a considerable time now.
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