American Thought and Life Since 1865 – First Test Review

Part I –Short Essays - Will choose two of these

1. How and why did art change between the Victorian Era and the 1920s?
Realism – effort to portray things realistically – more scientific, focus on
nature, the mundane
Victorian Art – Thomas Cole – Schroon Mountain – 1838
a. John Trumbull – George Washington – 1791
b. Abbot Thayer – Carites- 1894
Civil War important factor in building realism – world is not a beautiful
place – idealized version of the war – Cutter and Ives woodcuts – Victorian –
obviously not how it went down – contradicts soldiers experience – cynical view
of war and world captured in photographs of war
c. Matthew Brady – “Dead Soldier in Gettysburg” 1863
Fear that culture had become to feminized during Victorianism – too soft,
complacent, civilized…Reality is changing – cities grow, so much no included in
Victorians narrow view of world
Democratizing culture – not given to us by the elites – Realism – art can be
about anyone

Relativism affecting culture – Modernism

- Modernism effort to depict hidden realities – state of mind, emotions – How is
it possible that man can objectively depict reality? – response to realism –
Modernists interested in exploring their own inner consciousness –
democratizing art? – art should be a vehicle for genius – marvelous creativity
with a higher purpose
- 1913 – “The Armory Show” –International Exhibition of Modern Art – NYC
o 1911 – group of American artists – want to expose modern art in
Europe, in the corners of America – trying to bring modernism to
forefront of art – Gets lots of press – hyped up , big headlines – huge
crowds
o Van Gogh – 16 paintings here
o Charles Sheeler – Landscape 1913
o Henri Matisse – “The Blue Nude” 1907 – particular attention paid to
this – controversial Gallery I –“chamber of horrors”
o Pablo Picasso – Woman with Mustard Pot – 1910
o Francis Picabia - *Dances of the Spring 1912
o Diego Rivera – Two Women 1914 (in little rock)
o Robert Delahaunay – “Windows of the City No. 4” 1912
o Kandinsky – Improvisation 27 – Garden of Love – 1912
o Marcel Duchamp – “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2” 1912 – one
of the more infamous pieces of the show – one art critic “total
corruption of the art of painting” – NY Times – could destroy
society…what does this tell us – culture matters..
 2. How and why did literature change between the Victorian Era and the
1920s?

- Horatio Alger – literary blueprint for young Victorian readers – he was a

graduate of Harvard – wanted to be a minister, but also a writer – eventually
did become a minister, accused of sexing up little boys – turns to writing, over
100 novels for young boys – stories of American success – “From Farm boy
to Senator” – one of first is called “Ragged Dick” – honest poor kid – wastes
his money on gambling, expensive food, lacks self control – though in all
other areas he is good – starts saving up his money, becomes convert to
Victorianism – lands a good job – moves up
- Victorianism works for upward mobility

- Realist Literature – Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Theodore

Dreiser – effort to depict lower classes
o Dreiser – father was immigrant from Germany – grows up Catholic,
bounces around a lot – ends up in Chicago – very driven to succeed –
starts to write fiction – drawn to stories about beggars, drunks,
prostitutes - 1900 – Sister Carrie – shocking book – 18 year old girl -
small town to big city – all she wants is to be rich – to have nice things
– hooks up with Hurstwood guy for his money – they live together –
pushing him to buy her more, drives him into bankruptcy – he ends up
killing himself – she abandoned him – becomes famous actress and
she doesn’t thing about it twice

Modernist Literature – 1920ish – “a new generation of authors” – the lost generation –

Victoriansim  Realism  Modernism
- Disdainful towards Victorian literature – they’ve lived through WWI (some
fought) – formative, transforming event – disillusionment, destroying faith in
progress – live fast, die young philosophy – feeling detached from society
- Edna St. Vincent Millay – “my candle burns at both ends…”
- These writers look around and don’t like what they see in American – KKK,
prohibition, Red Scare, WWI, etc….Modernist reject this – reject reactionary
fearful state of America – many leave US – escaping stale and boring US –
move to Pairs, London, etc
- Not morally uplifting stories – write about crisis of the individual, the lost
ind., people adrift in the world, helpless
- William Faulkner – relativist – man is irrational, victim of his own
subconscious—series of books set in Yoknapatawpha Country (fictional)
Mississippi - characters tend to be fool-hardy, suicidal men –sense of decline
o The Sound and The Fury – 1929 – brilliant but nearly indecipherable –
family once great, in decline – relativist – set of events viewed from 4
different perspectives – mentally retarded man….
- Sinclair Lewis – prolific in 1920s- characters of American life – 1920 –
mainstreet – small town in Minn. – cultured woman from Chicago – get
 married and move to Minn. – residents of town impossibly narrow minded –
small town America – dull, materialistic, conservative, rigid people
- F. Scott Fitzgerald – insider/outsider – grew up wealthy, but were social exiles
– Minneapolis – dad was a drunk – F. Scott attends Princeton – writes
desperate novels – people seeking something they can never have – characters
who are unhappy – no moral purpose – “theres one lesson to be learned from
life, that theres no lesson to be learned from life”
o This Side of Paradise – patched together short stories – focuses on
college students – Amory Blaine – main character – (autobiographical
really) – sees classmates as shallow – finds his shallow – calls his
peers a generation that wakes to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all
mans shaken ?....Parents shocked to find what their kids were doing –
contests Victorians ideals
o The Great Gatsby – 1925 – similar themes
o Fitzgerald was a partier – alcoholic, broke, lives in Paris a lot – dies at
39? – wife drinks –committed to asylum
- Earnest Hemmingway – fights in WWI – lives in Paris afterward – just
bouncing around – gets famous in 1926 – write “The Sun Also Rises” – pretty
autobiographical – revolves around WWI –boozed up, drunk ex-patriot living
in Paris – characters war wound leaves him impotent – physically and
emotionally
o 1929 – A Farewell to Arms – similarly autobiographical –American
who joins Italian army – drives ambulance – like Hemmingway –
character ends up deserting – no explanation for volunteering
- T.S. Eliot – born in St. Louis – goes to Harvard – loves classics…MA in
Sanskrit – studies eastern philosophy – works it all into his poertry
o 1917 – The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock – trying to ask a woman
out, can’t do it – he is a miserable failure
o 1922 – The Wasteland – fragmented, understanding of war? – sterility
o The Hollow Men – despair about who we are, where we are going ---
- EE Cummings – born into insider family – son of minister- goes to Harvard –
goes to war – drive ambulance – after war he drifts – comes back to NYC –
paints- writes poetry – very diverse style …
o Buffalo Bill, Poem of Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal….
This is all elite culture..

3. What impact did World War I have on American culture during and in
the years immediately following the war?
American culture and thought during WWI – horrific, depressing – nightmarish war
- Rapid mobilization to try to drum up support for the war…merging mass
culture, consumerism with advertising and political goals = propaganda
- Woodrow Wilson – propaganda necessary – complicated war – no good guy,
no bad guy – helps to clarify the war – in black and white terms
- America was initially overwhelmingly opposed to war – pacifist time across
nation – Government agency created to promote support for the war –
Committee on Public Information – CPI – George Creel in charge –
 newspaper man – putting a positive face on the war – CPI dedicated reformers
sell war the way advertisers sell products – CPI hires writers, lecturers,
cartoonists, etc
- CPI creates pamphlets (75 million pamphlets that simplify the war) – 4 minute
men – 4 minute addresses explaining the war – 75,000 speakers speak to 314
million attendees – meaning people see the speeches multiple times
- CPI produces cartoons, movies, posters, etc – convinces US to conserve –
start your own gardens – meatless Mondays, etc – Liberty bonds – just
treasury bonds where money goes direct to war effort – makes people feel as
though they have a stake in the war
- At some level they are successful – at a price – intolerant of differences or
dissent of opinion – creates a hostile climate- lots of hostility aimed at
German Americans – teaching german is outlawed in schools
- Textbooks have anti-german bias – getting rid of German words such as
hambuger, and sauerkraut – and all this is backed by US law
o Alien Act (1918) – federal government has right to deport any foreign
resident if they are suspected of disloyalty – no trial needed
o Sedition Act (1918) – give government power to imprison people who
criticize war, military - of course this is hard to enforce – but people
do go to prison for years because of this
- Even song writers write pro-war songs, anthems – “you can’t beat us”
Movies during WWI
1. By 1914 – 5 million people see a movie each day, 17,000 theaters
a. Middle class is just beginning to change view on films
b. 14-17 – Americans clearly opposes US entry to war, Movies reflect
this attitude 1914 – Be Neutral, 1916 – War Brides, 1916 Intolerance
c. 1917 – we enter the war and films follow sort
2. Committee on Public Information (CPI) – headed by George Creel
a. Censor news, generate enthusiasm for war, essentially propaganda
b. Recruits filmmakers, huge moguls jump on board, a new opportunity
to legitimize their industry – gain new audiences
c. Stars also jump on board- sell Liberty Bonds
3. Films themselves also sell the war (Espionage Act narrowed possibilities
anyways)
a. The Beasts of Berlin, To Hell With the Kaiser
b. German and European actors of the silent era make a career out of
playing these roles – Erich Von Stroheim – often played German
officers – “The Man You Love to Hate” – makes himself into nobility
when he comes to America in 1909
c. Government becomes willing to help film industry get into foreign
markets, American gov. only one that does that for its film industry
Overseas profits go to 1/3 to ½ of its revenue
Reviewish – 1900-1920 – changes – Industrial Revolution – urbanization, immigration –
old certainties don’t hold anymore – shift toward relativism…Victorianism – absolute
values, contradicted by relativism – War contributes to feelings of cynicism,
disillusionment – what in a world of absolute values, justifies horrors of WWI? – WWI
supports notion of the absurdity of the human condition- questioning the sanity of
western civilization – WWI contributes to movement away from Victorianism
Relativism
- Albert Einstein – destroying notion of absolute values – Theory of Relativity –
view of universe was previously Newtonian – laws the govern universe…
o By 1920s- Einstein moves into popular lexicon – no absolutes – basic
way of understanding world in culture
- William James – Einstein’s ideas merge with his writings/philosophies –
1800s – what everyone experiences in a subjective reality – impossible to
truly define reality objectively
- Cultural Pluralism – anthropological – no hierarchy of cultural civilization –
no superior or inferior races…Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict at forefront of
this thought
o Interested in studying non-western societies – use these communities
to challenge notion that there are more or less civilized
peoples/cultures
o Margaret Mead – 1928 – “Coming of Age in Samoa” – children in
Samoa turn out better prepared, more mature than American children –
so they may be considered ore civilized than Americans – still very
controversial book …this idea is big- fits into idea of relativism –
despite cultural differences – there are no absolute rights, wrongs, etc
- Sigmund Freud – late 19th century, early 20th – became acquainted with Freud
and his understanding of the human psyche, the world – Victorians said that
we are in control of our actions, we are rational – Freud – present brain is in a
perpetual state of chaos – Id, Ego, Superego – things not always so clear – not
always in control of out thoughts – reason or logic often has nothing to do
with our actions –subconscious, sexual desires, dreams, childhood..etc
Relativism affecting culture – Modernism
- Modernism effort to depict hidden realities – state of mind, emotions – How is
it possible that man can objectively depict reality? – response to realism –
Modernists interested in exploring their own inner consciousness –
democratizing art? – art should be a vehicle for genius – marvelous creativity
with a higher purpose

4. Why did the United States shift from a producer-based economy to a

consumer based economy? Why did the ethos of consumerism spread
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

Erg – Wing it.

Part II – Long Essay -One of these

1. The American mainstream has historically been slow to change and
changes are rarely the product of innovations within the mainstream.
Instead, American cultural and intellectual shifts have generally resulted
from fringe groups that exist outside of mainstream, middle class society.
Discuss how the “outsider” altered the flow of American culture during
 the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Who were these
outsiders? What new ideas/art forms/styles did they produce? How did
the values they endorsed differ from the Victorian tradition?

Immigrants – south Europe, east Europe – unskilled, poor workers – don’t speak English
– Victorians look at these people as dangerous, as change – overwhelmingly settle in
urban areas
- Victorians hateful of immigrants – stereotypes, mocking, political cartoons –
but Immigrants don’t buy into Victorianism – try to preserve their own
culture, settle in ethnic communities in cities – Little Poland, Chinatown, etc.
- By 1900 – over 100,000 foreign language newspapers printed in US – next
few decades is a lot about this conflict between the two forces
- Immigrant entertainment is about the old world – holding onto something
familiar
- Rag-time – dominant form of pop music 1890s-1920s – obviously threatening
to Victorian ideals – ideas of what music should be – rag-time grows up in
saloons, brothels – ‘suspicious low bred’ roots – blends European
instrumentation with African rhythmic traditions, slave music – fusing black
and white music – shows danger of rag-time
o Scott Joplin – one of most famous rag-time composers – very well
acquainted with classical music and black music – one magazine calls
rag-time a national calamity…fast paced, close, sexual dancing – men
and woman touching other…GASP!
Sports – Victorians hostile toward this – no moral value, no lesson, not delayed
gratification – but merely entertainment – recognizable spectator sports emerge at this
time
- The need for spectators – cities – need industrial society with developed
railroads for transporting teams – need immigrant population that would
actually go
- Baseball – city game, played in street by kids from 1840s on – BB very
popular in NYC – club based networks arise where they play against each
other informally –
o After Civil war – nature of baseball changes – rich guys realize they
can make money off this – start closing grounds, building fields with
fences and charging admission – sponsor teams, start finding better
players to draw more spectators – professionalizing – more serious,
regular practice, specialize by position- by 1860s- professional
baseball exists
o 1869 – Cincinnati Redstockings – fist all pro team – antithetical to
Victorianism – associate sports with negative connotations –
immigrants, saloons, poor, loose morals, etc.
o System of baseball continues to be rationalized, legitimized – traveling
teams promoting towns, owners, or whatever
o 1876 – Creation of National League – represents effort to find middle
ground between respectability and bad connotations – bans games on
Sundays, bans drinking in ballparks, bans gambling, start charging
 more to get in – makes it more respectable – pushing out lower classes
–bringing in middle class – negotiating the new culture to create
something everyone can enjoy – by 1900 – established as respectable
sport
o Movement toward consuming an externally created culture – no longer
all self-created

Movies – erg…just wing it

- “Yellow Journalism” – splashy headlines, appealing to working class – this

sort of thing
- William Randolf Hearst – New York Journal
- Joseph Pulitzer – New York World
- Of course they own other papers – but they become the models for other
papers – both top 1 million circulation
- Hearst born out west – Pulitzer – Austrian Jew ....as you can see its often the
fringes of society that make something new that becomes mainstream –
newspaper syndicates emerge – see same columns, comics, all over the place

2. American culture was once based upon local tastes and traditions, but it
was well on the way to becoming a standardized, nationalized, “mass”
entity by the early twentieth century. Using all relevant class materials,
trace the evolution of mass culture. What characteristics does mass
culture have? What technological and cultural advancements made mass
culture possible? What were the major institutions that facilitated the
growth of mass culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries?

Sports – Victorians hostile toward this – no moral value, no lesson, not delayed
gratification – but merely entertainment – recognizable spectator sports emerge at this
time
- The need for spectators – cities – need industrial society with developed
railroads for transporting teams – need immigrant population that would
actually go
- Baseball – city game, played in street by kids from 1840s on – BB very
popular in NYC – club based networks arise where they play against each
other informally –
o After Civil war – nature of baseball changes – rich guys realize they
can make money off this – start closing grounds, building fields with
fences and charging admission – sponsor teams, start finding better
players to draw more spectators – professionalizing – more serious,
regular practice, specialize by position- by 1860s- professional
baseball exists
 o 1869 – Cincinnati Redstockings – fist all pro team – antithetical to
Victorianism – associate sports with negative connotations –
immigrants, saloons, poor, loose morals, etc.
o System of baseball continues to be rationalized, legitimized – traveling
teams promoting towns, owners, or whatever
o 1876 – Creation of National League – represents effort to find middle
ground between respectability and bad connotations – bans games on
Sundays, bans drinking in ballparks, bans gambling, start charging
more to get in – makes it more respectable – pushing out lower classes
–bringing in middle class – negotiating the new culture to create
something everyone can enjoy – by 1900 – established as respectable
sport
o Movement toward consuming an externally created culture – no longer
all self-created

Shift away from the agrarian, Victorian to modern, urban, mass culture – mass culture is
a culture that has a mass audience – self produced entertainment replaced by
consumerism culture
- Factors that need to be in place – 1. mass audience (dense pop. And market) 2.
need society that embraces leisure, 3. people with money and time to go
- Inexpensive amusements – sports games, nickelodeons, dance halls,
amusement parks – technology to get entertainment to masses at a cheap rate
–
- Magazines – pop culture – used to be expensive, small circulation, elite
audience
o 1865 – 700 magazines in the US (few have 100,000 circ)
o 1880 – 4,400 magazines in the US
o by 1900 – several magazines have circulation over 1 million
- Technology explains this growth – flat bed press (old)  rotary press (new) –
result is better illustrations, photographs, for cheaper
- Telegraph, telegram – faster transfer of information – trains – faster shipping
of magazines – more cost effective, more recent, more desirable – Advertising
helps
- Revolution in economics of magazines – Frank Munsey – modestly called
Munsey’s – was struggling 1893 – decides to slash price from 25cents to 10
cents – new technology – makes this possible – more circulation – can charge
more for advertising – and make more money – It works – circulation sky
rockets – 1893 – 20,000, 1895- missed the number…1900 biggest circulation
in world
- S.S. McClure – McClure’s magazine – 1893 – 15cents (8,000) to 10 cents in
1895 (250,000 circ)
- By mid 1890s – magazines = mass culture – start to proliferate and specialize
into niche magazines – Popular Science, National Geographic, Ladies Home
Journal…same sort of thing happens in newspaper industry.
Newspaper Industry – weren’t the all encompassing things we know today – newspapers
were for elites, specific crowds…all type, no pictures, long stories
 - For all the same reasons magazines changed – so did newspapers – More
advertisings cut coast – higher circulation- etc etc etc
- Result = Newspapers become mass culture – start going after immigrants
o 1870 – 971 daily newspapers
o 1900 – 2,226 dailies
- Big ones start selling for a penny a copy – Big headlines, splashy stories –
human interest stories – sex, crime, murder, etc
- Comic strips come about to grab audience by 1890 – “The Yellow Kid” –
1893 – New York World – first newspaper comic – Many people buy certain
newspapers for the comic strips
- “Yellow Journalism” – splashy headlines, appealing to working class – this
sort of thing
- William Randolf Hearst – New York Journal
- Joseph Pulitzer – New York World
- Of course they own other papers – but they become the models for other
papers – both top 1 million circulation
- Hearst born out west – Pulitzer – Austrian Jew ....as you can see its often the
fringes of society that make something new that becomes mainstream –
newspaper syndicates emerge – see same columns, comics, all over the place

Moving away from Victorianism towards a model based on consumption - we are no

longer simply people – but consumers – consumption is the path to self-fulfillment, self-
esteem – growth of consumerism – immigration, decline of Victorianism, working fewer
hours, mass production (technology)…How do we convince people to consume –
Advertising!
-Urban Department stores – “palaces of consumption”
- Wanamaker Dept. Store – Philadelphia – 3 acre building – huge, luxurious –
almost conveys status by just being there
- A.T. Stewart’s – NYC – selling image of luxury – low prices, can buy anything,
day care, one stop shop
- F.W. Woolworth – mastering impulse buying – standardized products, low
prices – comforting …Woolworth’s, Kroger’s, Piggly Wiggly – some opposition
to this movement – some say it strips the community of its identity – nation of
strip mals
Advertising –
- 1870 – 50 million dollars spent in advertising in US
- 1900 – 542 million
- Art of swaying consumers to believe they ‘need’ a new product…advertising
agencies study layouts, colors, techniques, etc….guilt, sex appeal, etc.
- By 1920 or so – more than half of the revenue for magazines, comes from
advertising – connects media with big business – maintaining content to not
offend the advertisers
Branding – creating brand names – trusted, highest quality, etc – creative package and
creating image is almost more important than the product themselves
 - Begins with crackers – National Biscuit Company – NABISCO – Uneeda
Biscuits – trademark slogan – image attachment – within a month of ad
campaign – 10 million units had been sold
- Shifting consumption to national level – flour – Pillsbury, Gold Medal – see
products as brand names – Coke, Band-Aids, etc

3. Victorianism was the dominant culture of the United States during the
late nineteenth century and, although Victorian values are no longer
prominent, they still bear great power today. Who were the Victorians?
Why did Victorianism emerge with such force when it did? What virtues
do we associate with Victorianism? How did the Victorians view culture?
What was it supposed to do?

Late 19th Century – really no such thing as “American culture” – though there was
Victorianism – named after Queen Victoria (ruled 1837-1907)
American Victorianism Intro
- Looked at world as ordered, linear world that’s getting better- rational – can
create universal laws – everything can be understood – put into a hierarchy –
including race, rich, poor, etc
- Belief that Western Europeans were a superior race – structured, stable system
– white race had a duty to civilize the others – Imperialism – covering Africa
- American Victorianism – slightly different – white urban middle and upper
class – dominant class…interacts with Puritanism, Protestant Work Ethic –
frugality, discipline, religion, delayed gratification, piety, etc (today we see
this as repressive)
- Late 19th Century US – rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, fear
of change for those in power – Victorianism – way to hold onto something
familiar, order, a guide – way to separate themselves as a higher class, a
higher morality
- In Britain – titles of nobility – Victorianism is how American upper and
middle class separate themselves
- Victorianism – hierarchy – rigid – isn’t flexible – good and bad are absolutes
– authority figures – dads, priests may dictate to those beneath them –
- Self Control is crucial – ways to keep people from having sex – about once a
month seems to be the Victorian recommended amount of sex for married
couples – Displays of affection – NO!...courtship rules….Temperance -
cutting back on alcohol…not supposed to show emotions in public…avoid
controversial subjects, proper greetings, not supposed to chew gum or touch
nose…infatuation with manners, rituals, etiquette….rules for visiting
friends…hardwork, domesticity…men and women have separate spheres –
women too fragile for the outside world, business, politics…men = animals,
women = plants
- Culture of True Womanhood – women pious, religious – her job to make sure
rest of family is also religious – women more pure sexually – men are to be
kept away, though they are naturally horny, it is the womans fault if she were
 to give in…women are naturally submissive, inferior to man – women find
dignity in the home, a sense of self respect found in domesticity
Victorian Culture – a way to reaffirm their values….music – temperance ballads, parks –
places of quiet reflection
- Horatio Alger – literary blueprint for young Victorian readers – he was a
graduate of Harvard – wanted to be a minister, but also a writer – eventually
did become a minister, accused of sexing up little boys – turns to writing, over
100 novels for young boys – stories of American success – “From Farm boy
to Senator” – one of first is called “Ragged Dick” – honest poor kid – wastes
his money on gambling, expensive food, lacks self control – though in all
other areas he is good – starts saving up his money, becomes convert to
Victorianism – lands a good job – moves up
- Victorianism works for upward mobility
- Theaters embody hierarchy of class – upper class – best seats, mid – orchestra,
lower – upper balcony
- Art Museums across nation built in late 1800s – many in 1870s – belief in one
true culture – that this culture comes the elite – must respect the art in the
museums – quiet, classics – not modern art
There is a conceit, an assumption that lower classes wish to be improved – but we
find that lower classes do not wish to be Victorian – class of cultures