National Character

Burt, Nathaniel Clark, 1825-1874Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 37K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.National Character by Nathaniel Clark BurtAuthor: Burt, Nathaniel Clark, 1825-1874,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Oct 21, 2006

Editor's review

This book is Nathaniel Clark Burt's nineteenth-century American discussion of national character, a public-domain work in philosophy, psychology, and religion, distributed free by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in offering rigorous national-character research in the contemporary social-science sense, but in showing how intellectuals of a particular historical period understood the relationship between national spirit, moral qualities, and civilizational development. It can be read as material for intellectual history: observing the conceptual frameworks, value assumptions, and rhetorical modes used in nineteenth-century English-speaking discussions of "national character." Because it was written early, the book may carry the limitations of its time and judgments not tested by modern methods; readers should examine its arguments with a critical eye. It suits readers interested in national-character discourse, moral philosophy, or nineteenth-century English essays, and the edition notes help explain its form as a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book. Overall, it is a document suitable for background reading and comparison in the history of ideas, not an introductory guide to contemporary national-character research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers examining national character and national-spirit discourse through intellectual history
Scholars studying nineteenth-century English moral philosophy and religious essays
Those needing Project Gutenberg public-domain samples for digital-humanities analysis
Enthusiasts who enjoy reading old-era discursive essays and analyzing their ideas

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous contemporary empirical research on national character
Those wanting a systematic sociology or psychology textbook
Beginners lacking patience for nineteenth-century English discursive prose

Reading tips

Read the publication information and author biography first to clarify the historical context before entering the main text.
Mark judgments bearing the prejudices of the era as you read, and compare them with contemporary research.
Read closely the chapters on morality or religion, and skim the rest for the main points.
After finishing, write a short review distinguishing the author's era-bound assumptions from questions still worth discussing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book national-character research in the contemporary sense?

No. It was written in the nineteenth century and belongs to the discursive works of its time; its discussion of national character rests on moral philosophy and religion and lacks the methods and data of modern social science. It should be read as material for intellectual history, not as a source of conclusions for contemporary national-character research.

Why is this book distributed by Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project providing free e-books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. This book has entered the public domain and has therefore been prepared and distributed free as an electronic text. What readers see is a public-domain e-book, not a newly edited edition from a contemporary publisher.

What foundation is needed to read the original English?

This is an English discursive work with long sentences and moral and religious vocabulary. University-level English reading ability is enough to attempt it; unfamiliar concepts can be aided by background materials on nineteenth-century intellectual history, and there is no need to parse every word.

Comments

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About the author

Burt, Nathaniel Clark, 1825-1874 Author

Burt, whose full name is Nathaniel Clark Burt (1825–1874), has very limited biographical information available in public sources: his nationality and the details of his life cannot be confirmed. What is known is that one work by him survives, titled National Character. Judging from its title, the book appears to discuss national character, collective temperament, or questions of national identity, and may involve comparisons and observations of the customs, modes of thought, and behavior of different peoples. Because fuller biographical materials are lacking, it is not possible to describe his education, career, or the circumstances that led to his writing, nor to assess the book's influence in its own time or its later reception. On the available evidence, Burt is an author recorded chiefly for a single work, and his style and intellectual stance await further documentation. For researchers, the work may serve as an entry point into nineteenth-century discussions of its subject, though it should be cited with caution and without overinterpretation.