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Manliness and Civilization analyzes the changes at the turn of the twentieth century
“primitive masculinity” which exhibits physical masculinity and violence. During the
time period of 1890-1917, Bederman argues that “white middle class men actively
worked to reinforce male power, their race became a factor which was as crucial to
their gender” (pg. 5). The Anglo-Saxon white male’s power was being threatened by
racial and sexual challenges. In the introduction, Jack Johnson is used as a case
success as a prize fighter and his white girlfriend that angered whites. White males
saw Johnson as someone that was challenging white superiority by showing off his
primitive masculinity.
Bederman explores the relationship between manhood and race through the
Civilization uses excellent case studies to demonstrate the different ways this
discourse could further their own opinions. Due to this change in discourse at the
time, the author sees gender relations at the time as unstable due to a variety of
1
Griffin, Clyde. Review of Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race
in the United States, 1880-1917, by Gail Bederman. American Historical Association. Vol.
102, No. 3. (1997): 903-904.
The case studies are diverse; Ida B. Wells’ anti-lynching campaign used
manliness to encompass black males and when she could not get the response she
was looking for went on a trip to England to highlight the inequality of the races in
“over civilization was endangering White Manhood” (pg. 77). Charlotte Perkins
Gilman believed that manliness includes females, but her approach only included
white females. Theodore Roosevelt was able to use his ideas of imperialism to
confirm his beliefs of white superiority. The conclusion explains how the persona of
Tarzan encompasses all these ideals of manliness and civilization. The link between
the case studies is how race and gender become the major factor in each person’s
arguments. Hall and Roosevelt are obvious choices as examples to show these
changes, but Gilman and Wells are less likely choices to exhibit this discourse of
“civilization”. All the examples help to highlight the opinions at the time.
excellent and soundly written case studies through four essays. The only weak part
of the author’s argument is the conclusion, in which she attempts to summarize the
effects of the turn of the century civilization on post 1920’s opinions of gender and
race. Manliness and Civilization provides an excellent link between race relations
and gender at the turn of the twentieth century and shows how these relations were