HIST 292.02 American Manhood and American Womanhood, 1860-Present
Ben Jordan
Seitz House 6 extension 5642 Email: jordanb@kenyon.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 9-12, Wednesday 1-4
Class meetings: Wed/Fri 8:40-10:00 Timberlake seminar room
CRN# 10978
Class description: Feminist scholars correctly argued in the 1960s that existing accounts of
American history focused on the activities of men at the expense of those of women. Women’s
historians have made great strides in rectifying this discrepancy. The following decade,
sociologists and cultural critics began studying the history of men as men to illuminate changes
in men’s experiences. Recent works have overcome the shortcomings of early men’s studies by
concentrating on how gender has worked in conjunction with race, class, and age norms to
determine the allocation of power and resources in American society. This course will
encompass the best findings of men’s and women’s histories and articulate the connections
between the lives of men, women, and those that defy binary categorization. We will give
particular attention to gender dynamics in politics, war, work, leisure, family, and religion.
Class goals: I have three primary goals for this course. First, it will engage students with key
arguments made by gender historians. A foundational concept is that gender norms are, to a
significant degree, socially constructed rather than being simply dictated by nature. Men’s and
women’s roles are historical in that they have changed over time in conjunction with broad
political and social trends. Moreover, women’s and men’s roles are defined in relation to each
other. The second goal of this class parallels the stated mission of Kenyon College: “to be able
to speak and write clearly so as to advance thoughts and arguments cogently; to be able to
discriminate between the essential and the trivial; to arrive at well-informed value judgments; to
be able to work independently and with others; to be able to comprehend our culture as well as
other cultures.” This class aims to help students develop these essential academic and life skills
via our third goal, practicing the Historian’s Craft. Students will be encouraged to see the
writing of history as an ongoing argument instead of a fixed, factual narrative. Students will
build proficiencies in analyzing primary sources, formulating arguments, evaluating historical
interpretations, recognizing multiple perspectives, and effective oral and written expression.
Class methods: This mid-level course employs a combination of lecture and seminar methods.
In addition to traditional lecture, we will spend a significant portion of class time in discussion
and group activities such as historical debates, role-playing, and peer evaluation of written and
oral work. We will also practice analyzing primary sources such as images, written documents,
films, songs, and material culture in light of concepts from lecture and readings. Students should
keep up with reading assignments faithfully so that we can have engaging and productive
discussions. Each student is expected to contribute regularly to class discourse and activities,
including submitting occasional discussion questions about the readings. Studying gender
history can touch on many sensitive issues, so students are asked to be considerate of peers’
perspectives and cultures during class activities.
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Disability guidelines: If you have a disability for which you might need accommodation in
order to participate fully in the course, please contact Erin Salva (Coordinator of Disability
Services, office in Old Bank Building, x5453, email salvae@kenyon.edu) and also see me.
Expectations and grading: Attendance, preparation, and participation in class are essential and
count 20% of the semester grade. An in-class midterm will count 25%, a take-home essay 20%,
and the in-class final exam 35% of the semester grade. My exams and grading emphasize
command of key gender history concepts, effective essay writing, and historical argumentation.
The instructor reserves the right to institute in-class quizzes should he deem it necessary.
Any assignment turned in late will result in the loss of a full letter grade for each day it is late.
Please read Student Handbook guidelines on plagiarism and cheating. They will be enforced.
Grading scale: 97-100% A+, 93-96 A, 90-92 A-, 87-89 B+, 83-86 B, 80-82 B-,
77-79 C+, 73-76 C, 70-72 C-, 67-69 D+, 63-66 D, 60-62 D-, 59 and below F.
Readings: These 8 required books are available at the bookstore. You will also be responsible
for articles and primary source excerpts assigned through Kenyon Library’s Reserve system.
1. Elliot Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America
2. Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the
Civil War to the Progressive Era
3. Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the
United States, 1880-1917
4. Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century
New York
5. Martin Summers, Manliness & Its Discontents: The Black Middle Class & the
Transformation of Masculinity, 1900-1930
6. Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
7. Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment
8. Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights
Movement of the New Left
Week 1 Jan. 14-18 What is gender history?
Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” American Historical Review vol. 91,
no. 5 (Dec. 1986): 1053-1075. E-Reserve/JSTOR
Toby Ditz, “The New Men’s History and the Peculiar Absence of Gendered Power,” Gender & History
vol. 16, no. 1 (Apr. 2004): 1-35. E-Reserve/Electronic Journal Center
Week 2 Jan. 21-25 The other Civil War: Victorian gender spheres and class relations
Elliot Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America
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Week 3 Jan. 28 – Feb. 1 Gendering politics in the Gilded Age
Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the
Progressive Era
Week 4 Feb. 4-8 The “gender crisis” of the 1890s
John Higham, “The Reorientation of American Culture in the 1890s,” in Writing American History:
Essays on Modern Scholarship (Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1970): 73-102. E-Reserve
Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the
United States, 1880-1917 (pp. 1-120).
Week 5 Feb. 11-15 Gender and race in civilization discourse
Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization (pp. 121-237).
*Film on Feb. 15th
Week 6 Feb. 18-22 Gender at play
Kathy Lee Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York
Week 7 Feb. 25-29 Gendered production, gendered consumption – 1890-1930
Wayne Lewchuk, “Men and Monotony: Fraternalism as a Managerial Strategy at the Ford Motor
Company,” Journal of Economic History vol. 53, no. 4 (Dec. 1993): 824-856. E-Reserve/JSTOR
William Leach, “Transformations in a Culture of Consumption: Women and Department Stores, 18901925,” Journal of American History vol. 71, no. 2 (Sep. 1984): 319-342. E-Reserve/JSTOR
*MIDTERM – FRIDAY FEB. 29th
SPRING BREAK MARCH 1-15
Week 8 March 17-21 Progressive parenting and women’s rights
George Sanchez, “‘Go after the Women’: Americanization and the Mexican Immigrant Woman, 19151929,” in Rima Apple and Janet Golden, eds., Mothers and Motherhood: Readings in
American History (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1997): 475-494. E-Reserve
Michael Kimmel, “Men’s Responses to Feminism at the Turn of the Century,” Gender and Society vol. 1,
no. 3 (Sep. 1987): 261-283. E-Reserve/JSTOR
Martin Summers, Manliness & Its Discontents (start reading for next week)
Week 9 March 24-28 The New Woman and the New Negro in the Roaring ‘Twenties
Martin Summers, Manliness & Its Discontents: The Black Middle Class & the Transformation of
Masculinity, 1900-1930
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Week 10 March 31 – Apr. 4 Idle Men and Rosie the Riveter, 1929-1945
Jeffrey Suzik, “‘Building Better Men’: The CCC Boy and the Changing Social Ideal of Manliness,” Men
and Masculinities vol. 2, no. 2 (Oct. 1999): 152-179. E-Reserve/Electronic Journal Center
Robert Westbrook, “‘I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl that Married Harry James’: American
Women and the Problem of Political Obligation in World War II,” American Quarterly
vol. 42, no. 4 (Dec. 1990): 587-614. E-Reserve/JSTOR
Maureen Honey, “The ‘Womanpower’ Campaign: Advertising and Recruitment Propaganda during
World War II,” Frontiers vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981): 50-56. E-Reserve/JSTOR
*PAPER DUE AT START OF CLASS FRIDAY, APRIL 4th
Week 11 Apr. 7-11 The American family in the nuclear age
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
Week 12 Apr. 14-18 Gendered challenges: beatniks and the Feminine Mystique
Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment
Week 13 Apr. 21-25 Civil Rights and Second Wave Feminism
Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement of
the New Left
Week 14 Apr. 28 – May 2 Backlash, women of color, and Iron John – late 20th century movements
Rebecca Klatch, “Coalition and Conflict among Women of the New Right,” Signs vol. 13, no. 4 (Summer
1988): 671-694. E-Reserve/JSTOR
*FINAL EXAM – THURSDAY, MAY 8th FROM 6:30--8:30pm
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