Summary Of Maureen Montgomery's Natural Distinction

The nineteenth century was a period of significant change for the newly established United States of America. The bloody and destructive Civil War had left the weakened country in a state of disorder and adjustment. Although politically unified, the country was still socially divided between the North and the South. In addition to the social issues that conflicted their way of life and economic foundation, the South had to correspondingly adapt to the rise of “industrialization and corporate capitalism, urbanization, and migration“(14). In the essay the “Natural Distinction”, Maureen Montgomery constructs a standpoint to interpret the identity crisis that the nation had succumbed to. This episode of vast change and transformation would ultimately

lead to the emergence of a new elite social class. As the sheer amount of wealth quickly ascended through industrialization, the competition of social acceptance quickly rose in the process as well. Using first hand perspectives, Montgomery is able to portray this period of transition in which many of the upper middle class were able to quickly embrace their European roots. Describing various personal accounts, she is able to ironically define how the American Bourgeois used European excursions to not only define themselves nationally as a distinctive people, but to furthermore create a cultural superiority towards their counterparts at home.
Following the Civil War, economic competition rapidly rose with the appearance of rail roads, corporate finance, and manufacturing.

Subsequently, many of the upper class subjugated various forms of cultural capital to expand social distinction and prestige to their financial fortunes. The “culturally rich” embraced this lifestyle of extravagance, luxury, and travel as a means to climb up the social ladder. As the popularity of these transatlantic voyages grew, European travel quintessentially became the Bourgeois experience and a common manner of discovering the American heritage. These prevalent excursions grew into a means of breaking the monotony of everyday life and an “instrument of social leverage in a ferociously competitive economy” by the end of the eighteen seventies (9). Montgomery goes on to describe the sheer paradox of the American excursions with her depiction of two American women traveling through southern Italy. She uses their offensive description of the local inhabitants as “dirty, shiftless, and dishonest” to show the sheer irony that came with these extravagant and prodigal trips (9). In doing so, she is able to quickly uncover the underlying issues that resonated at home during this time and the sheer arrogance that followed the American Bourgeois

themselves.
The American Bourgeois in themselves were in essence used by Montgomery to portray the social state of the country in this period of time. The new found freedom that came with the Thirteenth Amendment also created a new set of challenges that followed the Reconstruction period (1865-1877). For the first time in history, African Americans had not only gained a voice in government, but also in the community as well. The Civil War had produced an environment that was fundamentally opposing to the southern states. Accordingly, as black codes were enforced amongst the black communities, social prejudices became a prevalent issue among the new southern legislatures. The emergence of the Bourgeois and their extravagant trips became much more than class identity, it portrayed a sense of national identity that the American middle class imagined to by synonymous with their own ethnic group. Accordingly, Montgomery uses the arrogance of the European excursions to ultimately depict the social issues that were prevalent at home.