In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Introduction In 1897, readers of the Saturday Evening Post encountered the story of Mary, "a very pretty girl of sixteen," who was the daughter of "a man in moderate circumstances." "Oh! If I onlyhad a pair of diamond earrings!" said Mary to her mother. She confided, "I believe I should be perfectly happy if I had them. You don't know, mama, what a beautiful pair Esther Haley has. All the school girls envy her." After some quiet consultation, Mary's parents decided to buy her the earrings , with the hope of teaching her that "happiness does not consist in fine jewelry, but in a contented and cheerful spirit." While she was initially happy with her new acquisition, Mary soon tired of the jewelry. She began to compare herself with the wealthy young women of her acquaintance who sported diamond bracelets and who were far "more richly dressed" than she. "At first this made her envious; but ... she was both good and sensible. . . . gradually she began to see that, as she could not have all she wished, it was better to put a limit to her desires at once." She came to realize that "It isn't what we wear that makes us happy; it is the contented spirit within." Guided by this new insight, Mary gave her earrings back to her father. She told him, "I find now ... that I was unhappy, not because I had no diamonds, but because I was daily breaking the tenth commandment, and guilty of covetousness .... So, if you please, I'll do without them, and be content with old ones, which are more appropriate to your means, dear papa." At this, Mary's parents wept with joy, happy that their child had gained such wisdom so early in life.! Mary had learned a crucial lesson, one widely taught in nineteenth-century America: Envy is the enemy of contentment and must be conquered. She had learned that there were some items, like diamond earrings, which were inappropriate for people of modest incomes. Men and women of moderate 2 INTRODUCTION means should not expect to own the same things as wealthy folks did and should conquer their desires for such luxuries. Rather than act on their envy and struggle to change their condition, they must learn to be contented with their divinely appointed lot in life, no matter its limitations. To envy the rich and to emulate them was to rebel against God's wisdom and to commit a grave sin. A quarter century later, this evaluation of envy and emulation had been supplanted by a radically different understanding of the emotion. A 1923 editorial in the Ladies' Home Journal captured the new attitude. The magazine congratulated American women for dressing well. It offered particular praise to those women of humble origins who still managed to attire themselves with style and flair: "whatever their background, they seem all to be inspired with what we are told is a typical and somewhat standardized American desire to 'look like a million dollars.' " The magazine queried, "Is it all a wicked scramble to look rich? Is it an immoral stampede to find and worship the false gods of fashion?" The editorial writer thought not. Instead, he concluded , the desire to appear as well dressed as the rich was a sign of "innocent vanity-wholesome ambition to look one's best, to achieve beauty and distinction, to assert good taste and cultivated selection in clothes." The editorialist celebrated the fact that "shopgirls in Salt Lake City" were more fashionably dressed than "some duchesses in London." Rejecting the idea that individuals had to dress in a manner that reflected their economic position , the Journal encouraged women in their desire "to look like a million dollars," regardless of their income.2 Stylishly attired women of moderate means no longer ran the risk of being condemned for their envy and emulation ; instead, they were congratulated for their judgment and taste. Their clothes, modeled after those of the upper classes, were no longer a sign of dishonor and moral transgression but were lauded as visible symbols of their aspirations. Envy, which thirty years earlier had been considered a grave sin, was now regarded as a beneficial force for social progress and individual advancement. This book traces how envy came to be so radically redefined and what this change meant to middle-class Americans.3 It examines the process by which it became acceptable for middle-class men, women, and children to envy and...

Share