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. |
From inside the book
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Page vii
... , Civilized Anglo-Saxon Womanhood, and the Return of the Primitive Rapist 121 CHAPTER 5 Theodore Roosevelt: Manhood, Nation, and "Civilization" 170 CONCLUSION Tarzan and After 217 Notes 241 Bibliography 289 Index Vll Contents.
... , Civilized Anglo-Saxon Womanhood, and the Return of the Primitive Rapist 121 CHAPTER 5 Theodore Roosevelt: Manhood, Nation, and "Civilization" 170 CONCLUSION Tarzan and After 217 Notes 241 Bibliography 289 Index Vll Contents.
Page xi
... womanhood, is not an ahistorical given. Rather, each is the consequence of "historical, ideological" processes. This best man was white. He was also the apex of civilization, the greatest achievement of human evolution, progress, and ...
... womanhood, is not an ahistorical given. Rather, each is the consequence of "historical, ideological" processes. This best man was white. He was also the apex of civilization, the greatest achievement of human evolution, progress, and ...
Page 7
... womanhood — is a historical, ideological process.28 Through that process, individuals are positioned and position themselves as men or as women. Thus, I don't see manhood as either an intrinsic essence or a collection of traits ...
... womanhood — is a historical, ideological process.28 Through that process, individuals are positioned and position themselves as men or as women. Thus, I don't see manhood as either an intrinsic essence or a collection of traits ...
Page 8
... the South black men were regularly tortured and lynched for consorting with white women, and that even Northern whites feared that black men lusted irrepressibly after pure white womanhood. Therefore, he made certain the 8 CHAPTER ONE.
... the South black men were regularly tortured and lynched for consorting with white women, and that even Northern whites feared that black men lusted irrepressibly after pure white womanhood. Therefore, he made certain the 8 CHAPTER ONE.
Page 9
... womanhood. Therefore, he made certain the public could not view his wives as pathetic victims of Negro lust. Instead, he presented his wives as wealthy, respectable women whose husband was successful and manly enough to support them in ...
... womanhood. Therefore, he made certain the public could not view his wives as pathetic victims of Negro lust. Instead, he presented his wives as wealthy, respectable women whose husband was successful and manly enough to support them in ...
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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According activity adolescent African Americans allowed American race animals Apes argued became become began believed body boys British Building Burroughs called century Charlotte Perkins Gilman Chicago City civilization claim constructed cultural danger decadence depicted described desire develop discourse discussion dominance Economics equally evolution evolutionary evolved example feminist fight force gender Gilman Hall's hand human Ibid ideas ideologies Indians insisted Johnson kill Letters living lost lynching male man's manhood manly March masculine meaning men's middle-class millennial moral natural Negro neurasthenic never original passion perfect Pleistocene political primal primitive Quoted race racial rape rapist relation remained Roosevelt savage sexual social Southern Stanley Hall strength strong Study suggested superior Tarzan theory tion traits University Press unmanly Victorian violence virile weak white Americans white women woman women York young