Contact: Teresa S. Thomas (412) 268-3580 [email protected]
For immediate release: August 9, 1999
Carnegie Mellon "Battleground of Desire" Author Says Americans are Moralistic and Reacting To Fantasy Culture
PITTSBURGH--Americans are becoming an increasingly moralistic people who react to a strong fantasy culture of sex and violence as if it were a reality, according to Peter N. Stearns, a Carnegie Mellon University social historian whose new book "Battleground of Desire: The Struggle for Self-Control in Modern America" details trends in the emotional life of Americans.
"Battleground of Desire" is, Stearns says, "a major revision of a lot of current common-places." In the book, he rejects national efforts to convert some serious incidents, such as school violence and road rage, into evidence of a massive failure of American culture. He does not see America as a nation out of control, but rather as a nation with a propensity for "moral extremism."
"Part of my argument is a little complicated in that I contend that most Americans keep their impulses pretty well in check," Stearns says. "We are not an out-of-control people. But we have developed a culture that portrays things very differently. Most of us are not violent, but we watch violence. Most of us are much less sexy than we'd like to imagine but we watch sexuality. And, too many Americans actually operate as if our fantasy culture is our reality and it demonstrably isn't."
"Battleground of Desire," published by New York University Press, reveals the tensions in the American psyche. Stearns, the author of 64 books, has established himself as one of the foremost historians of American emotional life. In books about anger, "coolness" and body image, he has mapped out the basic terrain of the American psyche. With an emphasis on sex, culture and discipline of the body, in "Battleground of Desire" Stearns reveals the dichotomy that is at the heart of the national character -- a self-indulgent hedonism and the famed American informality on one hand, and a deeply embedded repression on the other.
Stearns argues that this is not a healthy combination. Drawing on case studies, data and past cultural analysis that explored the American culture from the Victorian age to the present, he brings us up to date on changes in the national character.
"My work is set at the end of the 20th century after three decades of really quite fierce efforts to escalate standards of self control," he adds. "In this context, the whole subject looks different than it did at the end of the sixties when the dominant theme was permissiveness. The past three decades have been a conservative time that on the whole has lacked particularly useful historical perspective. I think I provide that in 'Battleground of Desire.'"
During the course of his research, Stearns was somewhat surprised to discover there is strong continuity between Victorian and contemporary standards.
"We didn't change or pull away as thoroughly as some people think," Stearns explains. "Lots of societies would like to go back. We constantly think that in the 19th century or even in the 1950s things were simpler and purer and if we could only get back there, everything would be all right. Frankly, that's largely wrong as an empirical observation. Those times were not all that much purer. The desire to go back is a reaction to stress and change."
Americans are also surprisingly tough on themselves. "I've been working on aspects of American emotional standards for 15 years and one of the fascinating findings that I had not initially suspected, was the extent to which 20th century Americans create more rigorous standards for themselves than they used to have," he says.
Some of these standards touch on smoking, drinking, posture and diet, where Americans attitudes are strongly moralistic.
"We have a national habit of believing that if you make a moral case of something such as dieting you increase your power of persuading people," Stearns says. "And if you don't persuade them, at least you've tried and they are demonstrating by their own behavior that they are wrong."
Does Stearns have any predictions about how the American character will grow or change in the 21st century? He said he does expect a pendulum swing, particularly if the economy falters.
"We will go back and think more about social issues and less about personal ones," he said. "Right now, with the Clinton scandal and the high school shootings, everyone is trying to notch up the character stuff and emphasize the importance of religion. I'm not hostile to these movements but they are actually going along a well-trodden path. People talk about them as if they are new but we've been ratcheting up the character stuff for quite a while now. So I think the atmosphere will change at some point. Maybe studies like this will help to achieve a slightly better balance between social and character issues."
Dr. Stearns can be reached at 412-268-2830.
RSS