[I]f the diffusion of American wealth is accentuated, can it be denied
that the extremes are greater here than anywhere else, -that the army of
the unemployed is swelling while the billion-dollar trusts are formed,
that the richest men are richer than any European, while the slums of
New York show a misery that is unknown in Berlin? -from "American
Democracy" As a psychologist and an innovator of experimental
psychology, Hugo Münsterberg was a powerful influence on thinking in
both the medical and social arenas at the turn of the 20th century,
developing practical applications of psychology to industry, medicine,
education, the arts, and criminal investigation. Here, though, in this
1901 work, Münsterberg turns his scientific eye on American culture at
large, offering the perspective of an educated and observant immigrant
on the New World experience in the Gilded Age. From the delusions of
American democracy to the condition of women, Münsterberg's commentary
tells us much not just about the United States in the pre-World War I
period, but also about the mind of a man whose work continues to impact
today's philosophy of the mind and how it shapes human behavior. Also
available from Cosimo Classics: Münsterberg's Psychology and Social
Sanity, The Eternal Life, The War and America, and Psychotherapy OF
INTEREST TO: readers of American history, students of cultural
psychology German-American psychologist and philosopher HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
(1863-1916) was professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1892
until his death. He was elected president of the American Psychological
Association in 1898.
