Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917University of Chicago Press, 2008 M04 7 - 322 pages When former heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries came out of retirement on the fourth of July, 1910 to fight current black heavywight champion Jack Johnson in Reno, Nevada, he boasted that he was doing it "for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a negro." Jeffries, though, was trounced. Whites everywhere rioted. The furor, Gail Bederman demonstrates, was part of two fundamental and volatile national obsessions: manhood and racial dominance. In turn-of-the-century America, cultural ideals of manhood changed profoundly, as Victorian notions of self-restrained, moral manliness were challenged by ideals of an aggressive, overtly sexualized masculinity. Bederman traces this shift in values and shows how it brought together two seemingly contradictory ideals: the unfettered virility of racially "primitive" men and the refined superiority of "civilized" white men. Focusing on the lives and works of four very different Americans—Theodore Roosevelt, educator G. Stanley Hall, Ida B. Wells, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman—she illuminates the ideological, cultural, and social interests these ideals came to serve. |
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Page iv
... America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 56789 ISBN : 0-226-04139-5 ( paperback ) ... White supremacy movements — United States — History . 5. United States ... American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for ...
... America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 56789 ISBN : 0-226-04139-5 ( paperback ) ... White supremacy movements — United States — History . 5. United States ... American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for ...
Page xi
... Americans began to accept as true in the period between the end of the Civil ... white . He was also the apex of civilization , the greatest achievement of ... Americans , for example , resisted it in every possible way . Despite this ...
... Americans began to accept as true in the period between the end of the Civil ... white . He was also the apex of civilization , the greatest achievement of ... Americans , for example , resisted it in every possible way . Despite this ...
Page 1
... white readership that Jeffries would win . On the day of the fight , American men deserted their families ' holiday picnics . All across America , they gathered in ballparks , theaters , and auditoriums to hear the wire services ' round ...
... white readership that Jeffries would win . On the day of the fight , American men deserted their families ' holiday picnics . All across America , they gathered in ballparks , theaters , and auditoriums to hear the wire services ' round ...
Page 2
... white , who faced him . For two years Jeffries refused to fight Johnson ... America , white news- papers pleaded with Jeffries to vindicate Anglo ... American men to swallow . Race riots broke out in every Southern state , as well as in ...
... white , who faced him . For two years Jeffries refused to fight Johnson ... America , white news- papers pleaded with Jeffries to vindicate Anglo ... American men to swallow . Race riots broke out in every Southern state , as well as in ...
Page 4
... white women , Johnson had crossed the line , and the white public demanded ... Americans ' response to Jack Johnson was exces- sive . Why should a mere ... Americans to describe Johnson's ac- tivities as " a blot on our 20th century ...
... white women , Johnson had crossed the line , and the white public demanded ... Americans ' response to Jack Johnson was exces- sive . Why should a mere ... Americans to describe Johnson's ac- tivities as " a blot on our 20th century ...
Contents
1 | |
Ida B Wells Representations of Lynching and Northern MiddleClass Manhood | 45 |
G Stanley Hall Racial Recapitulation and the Neurasthenic Paradox | 77 |
4 Not to SexBut to Race Charlotte Perkins Gilman Civilized AngloSaxon Womanhood and the Return of the Primitive Rapist | 121 |
Manhood Nation and Civilization | 170 |
Conclusion Tarzan and After | 217 |
Notes | 241 |
Bibliography | 289 |
Index | 297 |
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Common terms and phrases
adolescent African Americans American race Anglo-Saxon antilynching Apes barbarism believed boys Burroughs century Charlotte Perkins Gilman Chicago civi civiliza civilization's civilized manliness civilized races civilized white constructed culinity cultural depicted discourse of civilization Edgar Rice Burroughs evolution evolutionary evolved example Feminism feminist fight force gender Hall's History human Ibid ideologies imperialistic Indians Iron John Jack Johnson Jane lynch law lynch mobs male body male power male sexuality manly self-restraint masculine men's middle-class millennial modern moral nation natural neurasthenic neurasthenic paradox overcivilized passion perfect political powerful manhood primal rapist primitive masculinity race race suicide racial recapitulation rape recapitulation theory remake manhood savage rapist savagery social Southern Stanley Hall superior Tarzan Theodore Roosevelt tion TR's traits uncivilized University Press unmanly Victorian violence virile Wells-Barnett white Americans White City white man's white supremacy white women woman womanhood Women and Economics York