GROWTH IN AMERICA FOUR LECTURES BY BERNARD. MOSES, PH.D. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL GROWTH IN AMERICA. LECTURE I. THE A FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY. HE occupation of the American continent by Europeans has part of its significance in the fact that it provided conditions for an unprecedented extension of democracy. In the presence of the wilderness and uncultivated tribes, the conventionalities of an old and complex society were wanting, and a new social growth began, with few of the hampering influences of artificial restrictions and distinctions. Never before, within historic times, had there been offered to man such an ample field of escape from the conventional forms |