Abstract
In Herman Melville's last and arguably most misunderstood novel, The Confidence Man: His Masquerade, the author leaves his readers with a grim and hopeless outlook regarding the future prosperity of America. The once religiously assured Melville critiques the fallen state of American society using religion as a moral barometer. The study that follows will explore how Melville's denigration of American capitalism and entrepreneurism has in some ways reached similar conclusions to those offered by Max Weber in his seminal essay: "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Moreover, Melville's criticism of industrialization is rooted in Christian values-not secular culture such as the Marxist ideas that were becoming popular in Europe. While Melville's transcendentalist contemporaries such as Thoreau and Emerson built their philosophies around human intuition and "innate knowledge," Melville-perhaps unintentionally-argues in favor of personal accountability and moral responsibility from an ideologically liberal approach. Interestingly, Melville's argument takes a very Christian approach to this American dilemma which is in itself a uniquely American trait.