Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 (Women in Culture and Society)

In "Manliness & Civilization", Gail Bederman argues that, “between 1890 and 1917, as white middle-class men actively worked to reinforce male power, their race became a factor which was crucial to their gender” (pg. 5). She writes, “This study is based on the premise that gender – whether manhood or womanhood – is a historical, ideological process. Through that process, individuals are positioned and position themselves as men or as women” (pg. 7). Bederman uses four case-studies in her analysis: the work of Ida B. Wells, G. Stanley Hall, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Theodore Roosevelt.Bederman argues that Wells, in working against lynching, “convinced nervous white Northerners that they needed to take lynch law seriously because it imperiled both American civilization and American manhood” (pg. 46). Wells had to counter the myth of the black male rapist, which whites used to reinforce their linking of controlled masculinity to definitions of civilization. Wells promoted her ideas in Britain and, “by enlisting ‘Anglo-Saxons’ as her allies, Wells recruited precisely the spokesmen most able to disrupt the linkages between manliness and whiteness which kept white Americans tolerant of lynching” (pg. 71).G. Stanley Hall worked to reconcile fears of neurasthenia, a “disease” believed to weaken men as a result of civilizing forces. Bederman crafts a Foucauldian argument, writing, “As an educator, Hall felt he could remake manhood by making men – literally. For what was education but the process of making boys into men? By encouraging educators to recognize the ‘savagery’ in young boys, Hall believed he could find a way to allow boys to develop into adult men with the virility to withstand the effeminizing tendencies of advanced civilization” (pg. 79). According to Bederman, “By transforming young men’s sexual passions into a source of scare nervous energy, Hall was able both to mitigate the danger of neurasthenia and to reconstruct adolescent male sexuality in ways which did not stress self-restraint” (pg. 103). Specifically, the betterment of the white race.In her third example, Bederman examines Charlotte Perkins Gilman arguing that “because Gilman’s feminist arguments frequently revolved around women’s relation to civilization, implicit assumptions about white racial supremacy were as central to her arguments as they were to Hall’s” (pg. 123). Accordingly, Bederman argues that the point of Gilman’s work “was to create an alternative ideology of civilization in which white women could take their rightful place beside white men as full participants in the past and future of civilization” (pg. 135).In writing about Theodore Roosevelt, Bederman argues, “TR framed his political mission in terms of race and manhood, nationalism and civilization. Like G. Stanley Hall and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Roosevelt longed to lead evolution’s chosen race toward a perfect millennial future” (pg. 171). Though Roosevelt consciously crafted a rugged, masculine persona, Bederman argues, “his political ambitions ultimately served the purposes – not of his own selfish personal advancement – but of the millennial mission to advance his race and nation toward a more perfect civilization” (pg. 177). Bederman writes of Roosevelt’s politics, “America’s nationhood itself was the product of both racial superiority and virile manhood” (pg. 183). This idea later reinforced American imperialism.

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 particularly impressed at how Bederman uses the novel Tarzan in her conclusion to show how all these narratives work together in a popular text.Needless to say, many of the discourses she identifies still play important roles in how masculinity is constructed today, even if some of the foundational ideologies have seemingly disappeared. This would be an excellent book to use in a gender studies class or even a cultural studies class. That said, the clarity of Bederman's argument and fascinating primary sources makes this a good read for anyone who wishes to expand their knowledge of turn of the century America or develop their sense of gender.

The connection between gender concerns, race, and the overarching language of civilization certainly can get a girl to thinking. In the end, Bederman makes her case--gender and race twined together in the theories of civilization and went a long way to forming American foreign policy at the turn of the twentieth century.

I have sought readings on analyzes of race and gender in the construction of national ideologies.I really liked the detail and sophistication of the author treated the topic.Recomento strongly to anyone who is interested in issues of race, color, gender and national identity articulated sociologically.

"Race and Gender cannot be studied as if they were two discreet categories. In the past, as in the present, these two categories of difference have worked in tandem, in ways that are no less real for sometimes not being apparent." Manliness and Civilization Two of the quintessential concepts used to define America and what it means to be a man in America are the concepts of masculinity and what it means to be civilized. Bederman examines this concept through the lens of a major 19th century exhibition and the writings of four people with very different takes on what it means to be both masculine and civilized. What the author demonstrates is that the concept of masculinity and civilization is inseparably connected with the concept of race. Indeed it is by differentiation from the non-white (and it is assumed less civilized) races that the definition of what is civilized seems to be drawn from. But this concept of being highly civilized seems to be in opposition to the concept of manliness. The more civilized the white middle class American man becomes the less manly he seems to be. So the question arises how can the two concepts be reconciled with each other? Through the four profiles in the book the author shows that different approaches that we used to define both what it meant to be a man and at the same time be civilized. What are presented are three opposing views on the topic and how each used the concept of women role and treatment in society and the concept of race to further their argument. Through these different chapters, Bederman shows that the concept of masculinity is a dynamic one that depends for its definition on concepts of race and gender that have wider implications in society. The final chapter on Burroughs Tarzan serves as the culmination of what this debate over masculinity resulted in by 1917 but as the author makes clear, this debate goes beyond the scope of the time period covered. This is a very readable book and would be of interest to anyone studying the history of gender and race in this country and gives a new take on President Teddy Roosevelt to boot! I highly recommend this book.