English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

4-29-1969

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine some theories and theorists in the fields of politics, history, economics, architecture, and literature with the expectation that they would provide some substantial answers and some new directions both toward definition and understanding of the subject of individualism. The dissertation does not attempt to be "definitive" or "comprehensive," but rather it explores aspects of the subject with the hope that a better understanding will emerge. Because of the tremendous breadth and scope possible to the subject, it was determined to limit these studies to certain aspects of political, historical, economic, architectural, and literary theory. I have thus attempted the following:

1. A survey and examination into neo-classical economic thought and the libertarian movement as represented by the Foundation for Economic Education and Leonard Read.

2. A close reading and evaluation of what individualism might mean and might be in the field of architecture and in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

3. A search for individualism in the literary creed and practice of Mark Twain as well as in a theory of the uses of symbolism in literature.

4. An exploration for the meaning of individualism in the historical theories of Frederick Jackson Turner and the exemplification of those theories in the experience of the Mormon people.

5. The meaning of individualism in the fields of political theory as exemplified in the work and ideas of Herbert Hoover.

6. The meaning of individualism as revealed in the economic theories of Thomas Paine.

7. Prefatory studies of theories dealing with "the individual and conflict" related to evolution and "the individual and self-development” which might make the other studies somewhat more comprehensible.

As a result of my investigation I believe that I have provided some new insights into the thinking of Thomas Paine, Herbert Hoover, Mark Twain, the Neo-Classic Economists, and Frank Lloyd Wright. And I have made a new application of these insights towards an understanding of the subject of individualism and its definition. I have also suggested a new linking between organic form in literature and architecture and political-economic individualism and I have proposed that the economic theories of the neo-classicists and of the libertarian movement and its propoganda arm (The Foundation for Economic Education) are consistent both in theory and in practice. Individualism is too broad to permit a single sentence or single paragraph definition. But from the dissertation there may emerge a better sensing of the scope, the direction, and the meaning of the subject.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

George Warren Arms

Second Committee Member

Robert A. Robertson

Third Committee Member

George Winston Smith

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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