A Rich Man's Guide to Social Climbing: Philanthropy as a Bourgeois Behavioral Pattern in Nineteenth-Century New York

Abstract

A Rich Man’s Guide to Social Climbing: Philanthropy as a Bourgeois Behavioral Pattern in Nineteenth-Century New York THOMAS ADAM his article explores the function and importance of cultural institutions in T establishing class distinctions in nineteenth-century New York. Focusing on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I demonstrate how the Burgerturn, or upper class, established itself as an elite. In sum, this essay is about the class structure of American cities and the emergence of an...