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

Bederman opens Manliness and Civilization by describing the heavyweight championship boxing match between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries, which took place in Reno, Nevada on July 4, 1910. Jeffries, a white boxer, came out of retirement at the urging of the white American public to reclaim the heavyweight title from Jack Johnson, who was Black. White Americans were incensed that a person of color held such a distinction as the top athlete in such a popular sport. Boxing had come to be seen as an emblematic measure of male prowess and virility, and white, middle-class Americans were certain that Jeffries would be victorious over Johnson. Johnson was unquestionably the winner of the fight. The white American public was outraged. Not only had Johnson cracked the veneer of white supremacy by defeating Jeffries, but Jack Johnson was also particularly disliked because of his marriages to and affiliations with white women. After his victory, charges of human trafficking were brought up against Johnson, who was influenced to flee the country. Though the charges were baseless, and he tried to negotiate a return to the United States to serve his sentence and pay the appropriate fines, Johnson was essentially exiled when authorities prevented him from doing so. When he eventually returned to the United States years later, he was broke and downtrodden, punished for his excellence.

Bederman proceeds to present the contexts and parameters that define how she examines the concepts of manliness and civilization. She defines gender as “a historical, ideological process” (7), which is directly related to the physical attributes of an individual’s body. Civilization, as it pertains to Bederman’s work, is a notion claimed by white Anglo-Saxon men as their own creation, which they measured by its juxtaposition against what they considered primitive, which was exemplified by the features and behaviors of other races. Their views of those who did not share their racial identity vacillated between patronization, infantilization, and fear of and disdain for people of color. White Anglo-Saxons of the period believed people of color occupied a lower run of the evolutionary ladder than they did, and that people of color had more in common with white Anglo-Saxons’ primitive ancestors than they did with white Anglo-Saxons themselves.

For white Anglo-Saxons of the period, white racial advancement and each person’s individual contribution to their race’s quest to reach its evolutionary potential were priorities. Lamarckian theory, which Bederman’s text explores, was widely accepted during the period. This theory posited that inheritance functioned on a collective basis, through which each new generation inherited the total achievements and development their predecessors had attained before them. Thus, the notion of white racial progress that was so highly valued as an aspiration was grounded in the idea that as each generation bettered itself, the forthcoming generations stood to benefit from that improvement.

Bederman cites many of the social, economic, and cultural changes occurring in the United States from 1880-1917 that contributed to the remaking of manhood and masculinity. As the dynamics of the economy changed, middle-class men were gradually deprived of the opportunity to increase their wealth as self-employed, autonomous entities. The budding economic culture of capitalism began to create a scenario through which middle class men were increasingly required to work for others and found themselves in professional positions where there was little mobility and opportunity for advancement. Middle-class men were also concerned by the influx of immigrants and working class individuals who were gaining power and influence through their social and political influence. Instead of seeking satisfaction through professional efforts, middle-class men began to develop interest in leisure activities, which some believed resulted in a type of decadence and idleness. As the parameters in which they were interacting with the world around them shifted, Bederman attests that white middle-class men became even more preoccupied with the notion of manhood and their identities in relation to how its definition was shifting in the social context. Increasingly, the gentlemanliness, chivalry, and refinement so highly valued in the Victorian period were seen as detriments and hindrances to the new demands on men, incompatible with the new male identity, and they gradually fell out of favor.

Bederman defines the terms “manhood” and “masculinity” in detail, identifying them as separate concepts that were loaded and embraced separately as values and ideals shifted. “Manhood” became a more antiquated term, used in reference to one’s character and morality, whereas “masculinity” evolved and gained popularity and came to refer to behaviors and features that were grounded in maleness and a new fixation on virility.

Bederman closes the chapter with a discussion of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Named “the White City” by its organizers, The Columbian Exposition was a celebration of American achievements in engineering, agriculture, and industry. It was a dazzling spectacle touting the promise of the young nation on the eve of the new millennium. While the White City showed off the inventions and feats of white men, an exhibit called the Midway Plaisance featured Indigenous people brought to Chicago to be displayed as curiosities in sets designed to mimic their “natural habitat.” White women were allotted a small “Women’s Building,” but declined to feature any achievements by female exhibitors of color. At the close of the chapter, Bederman outlines the four authors whose works and lives she features as examples of the discourse of manliness and civilization.