Manliness and Civilization Review

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Bederman, Gail. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in
the United States, 1880-1917. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Gail Bederman has opened a new door to the cultural history of the United States
during the Progressive era. Her study of gender and race in the United States provides
the scholarly world with a new perspective on the cultural shift of civilization manliness.
This shift Bederman is referring to is the shift from “manhood” to “masculinity.” She
argues that at the turn of the century the middle-class male tried to reinforce his power
and control and through this race became a factor that was central to gender. (5) In order
to argue this point Bederman takes on four candidates to study including, Ida B. Wells, G.
Stanley Hall, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Theodore Roosevelt. Through these four
examples, Bederman is able to show how this drive to maintain an Anglo-Saxon social
hierarchy caused the culture of America to shift in a different direction than the
“manhood” of the Victorian America, where sexual restraint and strong character were
essential characteristics. This is what Bederman considers the discourse of civilization
during the end of the nineteenth century and the examples she provides throughout the
book represent the ways that historical figures tried to control and influence society to
justify their authority.
Ida B. Wells was an activist that was against lynching in the South. Bederman
uses her as an example to explain how white men in the South used the concept of black
inferiority and white superiority to justify lynching. She then goes on to show how Wells
was genius in the way she fought against this white man’s burden. Wells took the
concept and twisted it to favor lynching. She did this by explaining that lynching was a
barbaric and uncivilized trait, so these men were actually just as inferior as the black
man. For example, Bederman states when referring to Wells that “she manipulated the
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discourse of civilization to play on their fears about declining male power…Wells was
able to raise the stakes among middle-class Northern whites, who had previously
tolerated lynching.” (45)
G. Stanley Hall was a scholar that was devoted to the advancement of psychology
and pedagogy. With Hall Bederman focuses on primitive masculinity and does this by
showing how Hall was worried that the middle-class had lost their sense of manliness.
He feared that they were not as tough and as strong as they had been before in
civilizations that enabled them to continue to move upward. Bederman uses Hall
defining the stages of adolescence in terms of race instead of age to explain how “white
American men continued to see nonwhite races, primitiveness, and violence as powerful
ways to represent a virile masculinity much desired by civilized men.” (120)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist theorist who pushed for the equality of
woman. Bederman uses Gilman to show an example of how a white woman used the
white supremacy concept to try to get equality for white woman. She claimed that white
woman were as civilized as white men and therefore equally superior to the other races.
(169) Bederman is able to depict how even a white feminist was finding ways to use the
white supremacy and that Gilman’s argument against male dominance depended on the
shared racial bonds that outweighed the primitive, animalistic, and sexual difference.
Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States who pushed for
imperialism and progressivism. In this part, Bederman uses Roosevelt as the prime
example of manhood. She states “one cannot understand…Roosevelt’s evocation of
powerful manhood without understanding that…race and gender were…intertwined with
each other…with imperialistic nationalism.” (214) She explains that Roosevelt’s actions
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showed American men how to exert this racial male dominance. For example, she states
“ Roosevelt had worked long and hard to revitalize American manhood by predicating it
on white racial dominance.” (215)
Bederman concludes the book with a cultural connection between Roosevelt,
Hall, and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan of the Apes. Bederman is clear in her overall
objective of this study by stating in this conclusion that “my objective in analyzing the
turn-of the century discourse of civilization has been to contribute to recent scholars’
observations that race and gender cannot be studied as…two discrete categories.” She
then goes on to clearly explain her main point that “this study suggests that neither
sexism and racism are rooted out together” and that “male dominance and white
supremacy have a strong historical connection.” (239) This is one of the strongest parts of
this study, that Bederman is very clear with her objectives and arguments. She has
provided the scholarly world with an adequate and extensive cultural study of the
Progressive era and in doing so has explained how the shift of the American cultures
view of manhood. Bederman’s work has provided a different way to look at gender and
race.
John C. McKnight
Appalachian State University

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essential characteristics. This is what Bederman considers the discourse of civilization

justify their authority.

tolerated lynching.” (45)

ways to represent a virile masculinity much desired by civilized men.” (120)

example of manhood. She states “one cannot understand…Roosevelt’s evocation of

powerful manhood without understanding that…race and gender were…intertwined with

on white racial dominance.” (215)

Bederman concludes the book with a cultural connection between Roosevelt,

Appalachian State University

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