The Fusion of Material and Symbolic Capital in the American Century

From Introduction: 'When sharing his vision for America in the 20th century in “The American Century,” publishing magnate Henry Luce argued, “Blindly, unintentionally, accidentally, and really in spite of ourselves, we are already a world power in all the trivial ways – in very human ways” (1). Luce believed that the international dominance of American culture, from movies and music to language and material goods, gave the nation power that was both economically and symbolically important. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America lived out Luce’s vision of economic and symbolic capital through material culture. In “The Power of Capital and the Problem of Legitimacy” by nineteenth-century historian Sven Beckert and “Setback Skyscrapers and American Architectural Development” by architecture scholar Benjamin Flowers, we see how the 7th Regiment’s Upper East Side armory and the Empire State Building were fields for Americans to develop social and cultural capital, while also acting as symbols of a wider American cultural cachet. In the realm of consumer goods, Allan Brandt’s “Engineering Consent” demonstrates how cigarettes possessed abundant social and economic meaning, democratizing access to goods while helping America as a whole grow in wealth and stature. The confluence of economic and cultural capital in these spaces and products affected class lines within the United States while contributing to Luce’s vision of an international “American culture” that reflected prestige and upper-class tastes.'