nyt forums do Hank addams

[calbert at pop.tiac.net]

The following submission caught my eye. M&D fanatic alert - check the 
last sentence.

more todorov later.

love,
cfa


We seem to be touching on the importance of social class in the
          formation of Adams's ideas. I think one of the things he found
          profoundly troubling in social developments after the Civil War was the
          increasing gap between the 'upper classes' and the rest of society. I have
          previously quoted John Adams on belief in government of the 'well-born,
          well-bred and well-educated,' a classic statement of the necessity of an
          'aristocracy' in the literal meaning of that word. The Adamses were bred
          up for generations to a sense of social position and a sense of the
          obligations that position entailed. But in the society of Adams's childood
          and youth, social distinction did not mark separation from the rest of
          society. Although his 'education' included meeting Presidents and
          Senators, Adams did not attend the 1840's equivalent of Groton or St
          Paul's. He was taken, in a memorable incident, by the hand by a former
          President of the United States to a school where he presumably sat with
          the sons of mechanics and grocers. He mixed with and fought with (the
          snowball fight!) a cohort representative of all social classes.