Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917

Fascinating historical study of the use of the discourses of manliness think hegemonic masculinity , masculinity, and civilization ie, whiteness by four different historical figures Ida B Wells anti lynching activist , G Stanley Hall the psychologist who came up with the developmental concept of adolescence , Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Teddy Roosevelt The I read about this time period, the I realize how everything that is happening now has happened before Totally fascinating And gave me a d [...]

Bederman draws a connection between race and gender and argues that one must dissolve the racist sexist discourse on both ideas in order to change either of them At the end of the 18th century, middle class Americans were explaining male supremacy in terms of white racial dominance and male power These Progressive Era men used ideas about white supremacy to produce a racially based ideology of male power Bederman argues that gender is a historical, ideological process At this time, men were clai [...]

I m re reading this for what must be at least my 10th time I assigned in to one of my classes this semester History of Sexuality in 20th c US I worried about assigning it because it is a 1990s book, but I still find it so compelling I love the way she gets at sexual ideas and behavior via discussions of gender, civilization and race Very clever Jack Johnson, Ida B Wells, G Stanley Hall, Teddy Roosevelt and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, along with her study of Chicago s World Fair are all telling cas [...]

Takes information widely known about the era and shows the narratives in the discourse of the time involving manhood, race, social Darwinism, ideas around the enervating and effeminate effects of civilized life and a mix of toxic ideas that probably made a toxic cocktail as the bloody 20th century wore on Based on what came before ideas on sex and race are constantly mutating and evolving but never losing grip on the minds of the populace Very interesting perspective on an ugly undercurrent to o [...]

A fine set of case studies, this book elucidates Foucault s often opaque method of discourse analysis Some of the analysis got repetitive, but for the most part the histories were fascinating, especially those of Jack Johnson, Ida B Wells, the Columbian expo in Chicago, and G Stanley Hall The author demonstrates convincingly how the discourse of civilization interacts with the discourses of gender i.e manliness masculinity and of race, as well as how that interaction evolves over time.

Milenialism not the generation, it s a religious idea and social Darwinism collide in an explosion of shifting ideas of what it means to be masculine and manly As the times change, so do meanings I am entirely too exhausted to elaborate than that Loved the book, Bederson is a great storyteller Her conclusion wraps up amazingly well with a synthesis of all areas mentioned in previous chapters and Burroughs Tarzan.

Feminism, racism, clash of civilizations A history book that feels frighteningly relevant today And for the academic types it s a really brilliant set of illustrations of the way sexual or gender claims in the U.S context are raced from their inception.

Perfection.

Great book As a hispanic from a country colonized by souther european catholics that didn t prohibit miscenegation, I was impressed by all the bs that whites thought about themselves and about others in the US Roosvelt s ideas about masculinities were so fucking surrealistic and bizarre to the point that I started laughing I was also schocked to read all the upheaval that ocurred when the first black boxer defeated a white boxer riots, killings, beating, laws in the congress were passed and at t [...]

This is one of the better explorations of masculinity and US history, although it has its limitations as well Bederman set out to discuss the ways in which middle class men and women worked to re define manhood in terms of racial dominance, escpecially in terms of civilization in the period 1880 1917 To do so, she picked four case studies Ida B Wells, an anti lynching activist, G Stanley Hall, a professor of psychology, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a women s rights advocate, and Theodore Roosevelt, [...]

This book is a tightly woven argument for how masculinity has been intertwined with race and gender through narratives of civilization Bederman demonstrates that modern conceptions of masculinity emerged in the late nineteenth century, along with racialization movements driven by a kind evolutionary millennialism Different people synthesized race, gender, and civilization in different ways to make sense of social phenomena, like lynching, women rights, adolescence, and American imperialism I m p [...]

A little redundant at times, but it s a really interesting history of gender What I liked about it is unlike a lot of histories of masculinties she doesn t conceptualize masculinity as a thing She considers it a discourse a la Foucault and charts the transition from a discourse of manliness to one of masculinity Google Ngrams support her idea that masculinity gradually replaced manliness around the turn of the century But, to illustrate how and why that happened, she uses four really interesting [...]

From an academic point of view, this book has it s good points and it s bad Bederman really supplies example after example Unfortunately the examples are undocumented, and sometimes complete assumptions about how things might have been However, she puts forth an interesting idea about Mankind as prey leading to the Man s War mentality of today.

Very interesting work, of a school type but still some fun parts about Teddy Roosevelt and the first black boxing Champion, Jack Johnsonry good stuff on him I do not however believe many of her ideas, but her research is sound.

Really interesting book, and responsible for my senior thesis Presents a whole different interpretation on the way history is learned and our masculine heroes are worshipped.

Classic Must read for anyone studying 20th century American history.

Great example of the linguistic turn in women s history, with the emphasis on how we come to know and understand gender Overall great, but I thought Jack Johnson deserved his own case study.

i m reading this for my independent study and it is great it is a great read even for those who are not history nerds

Groundbreaking study of masculinity and its relation to race in the United States.