Johnson states that in the early 19th century, the United States of America was developing as both a liberal democratic society, with an ethos of individualism, and as a capitalist economy, with influential middle and business classes. In the early decades of the 19th Century, Rochester was a rapidly growing and economically developing community. Its position on the early canal system helped make it a center for regional trade and early manufacturing. The manufacturing and sale of products came to be increasingly based in specialized buildings, which utilized management and wage laborers. A growing middle class and business owning class arose in the city, whose conditions included a relatively increased standard of living, and higher levels …show more content…
of social prominence. These classes fostered the development of new gender roles, in which men were tasked with outside work, while women oversaw domestic matters within the household. The rise of democratic individualism combined with the rapid changes in social relations brought about by the development of capitalism created a situation in which there was less established guidance for determining standards of behavior, legitimacy, and social relations. Johnson contends that revivalism and reformism were adopted embraced as a means for creating a culture to legitimate democratic capitalism and the social dominance of the middle and business classes.
He contends that the middle and business classes of Rochester were the largest and earliest embracers of religious revivalism. Evangelical religious conversion provided the middle class and business owners with ethical codes to de jure guide their behavior and put forward a public image of virtue. The tendencies of these religious revivalist groups to emphasize individual effort in spiritual fulfillment, self-control, and the virtue of acting to improve conditions in the world, could be interpreted to compliment their place within a democratic capitalist …show more content…
system. Johnson contends that middle class reform efforts acted as a means of social control to advance business and middle-class interests. Wealthy and middle-class members of Rochester lent significant support toward community reform efforts, which often focused on changing the behavior of working class, poor, and newly migrated members of the population. Business owners tended to exercise a paternalistic attitude toward regulating the behavior of their workers. In various ways these reforms were useful in trying to enculturate lower class members into a system of beliefs that benefited the middle class. For instance, Temperance was embraced by business owners as means of producing more self-controlled and productive workers, and by middle class women as a means of reducing the impact of drinking on domestic life. Reformist policies were used as a political means to limit unruly behavior among the lower classes. Issues such as Temperance, Sabbatarianism, and the Anti-Masonic movement became contentious matters between different class groups, and became a tool in the rivalries between different political figures and parties. Johnson concludes that religious revivalism and Antebellum reformism gained its mainstream prominence as a means for legitimating democratic capitalism and the social position on the middle class. In American Reformers 1815-1860, Ronald Walters presents a social and cultural history of American reform movements from 1815-1860.
Walters describes the focus of his book as seeking an understanding of reform movements in terms of how the messages and efforts of these movements resonated with the social and cultural factors of American society. Walters defines reform movements as arising from people declaring something to be problem, envisioning a goal for remedying it, and establishing an organized effort to achieve their intended change. He describes reform activity as one of multiple choices for people in the 19th century to react to the conditions and changes within American society, which part of the population embraced, due to the appeal of the ideas to them and social conditions enabling them to afford to follow through on the matter. Walters approaches Antebellum reform by covering the United States of America overall. He also claims that the reformism of the Antebellum period was distinct and had little connection with the reform movements of the Progressive era, and that periods of war segmented periods of reform in the United States. Thus, he treats the reform movements of 1815-1860, as an interconnected element within the systems of
society. Walter’s contends that the period from 1815 up to 1860, was made favorable for reform movements by the social factors which were at play at the time. The end of the War of 1812, allowed public attention to be focused more toward domestic matters. There was an expansion of democratic activity, combined with an anti-elitist sentiment, and an ambivalence among many toward politics, which opened some toward pursuing activism. Social and economic developments encouraged some to turn toward reform as a means of navigating change. Evangelical revivalism accompanying ideas the capacity for human improvement helped encourage some to undertake temperance activities. Likewise, things such medical and scientific notions, the development of infrastructure, and immigration had effects on the inclinations of some people. Walters contends that the motivations and factors involved in leading some Americans to embrace reform movements were likely multiple and differed among various people. In American Reformers, Walters gives an overview of the major details of various reform movements. This includes sections or subsections on Antislavery and Abolitionism, Temperance and Prohibitionism, early Women’s Rights, the formation of charitable societies, the development of educational institutions, the creation of prisons and asylums, Antebellum peace movements religious and secular utopian communities, health movements, spiritualism, phrenology, and workers activism movements. In his coverage of these topics, Walters tends to provide much of the main details for what these movements did in society and how they generally developed within the period. For instance, in his coverage of the Temperance movement he makes mention of important figures such as Benjamin Rush and Lyman Beecher, mentions various factors which helped advance temperance thinking, such as religious revivalism and medical research, mentioned significant groups such as the Washingtonians, and described the movement’s general shift over time toward teetotalism and prohibitionism. Walters also gives mentions to the internal complexities and distinctions within these movements. For instance, how the anti-slavery movement included both people who were interested in abolition, while others sought to merely limit the spread of slavery, and how some were interested in pursuing racial equality, while others were interested in preserving the economic interests of white laborers. Walter’s attempts in his book to produce a relatively comprehensive coverage of the details of American reform movements. In Reforming Men and Women, Bruce Dorsey focuses on the relationship between gender roles and the dynamics of reform movements in Antebellum Philadelphia. Dorsey contends that notions of gender and changing notions of gender had an effect on the behavior of reform activists and their reception among the public. He contends that his book extends beyond previous social histories, which looked at reform in terms of class and ones which analyzed the role of women, to produce an account that looks at it in terms of how masculinity and femininity related to reform. In the 1820’s, the rise of the middle class helped to produce new notions of gender roles, which emphasized independence and productivity for white men, the designation of the public and political realm as a mainly masculine sphere of society, the designation women to the domestic realm of society. Women and children were designated to be in dependent positions, and African Americans were placed in a subordinate position. The activities of reform movements were in part effected by gender, class, and racial roles, but also had an effect in challenging or shifting them. Dorsey focuses on his analysis on the issues of poverty, alcohol, slavery, and immigration within Philadelphia. For poverty, he contends that during this period, the focus of anti-poverty efforts by middle class men turned increasingly toward promoting independence and self-sufficiency. This was in part due to the new masculine middle-class value of independence. Though this created an issue when dealing with poor women and children without adult male family members, as women were not expected to act as self-sufficient earners. Thus, there efforts to id poor women were limited. Charitable work offered one of the initial mediums where middle class women were able to engage in socially acceptable activities outside of the home. Though when female charitable organizations provided aid to people other than women and orphans and included aid to men and entire families, it produced some anxieties among some figures in society, that this could disrupt the social distinctions of gender and the order of the family. But these female charitable efforts continued, and thus the lines of male and female relations shifted somewhat.
I commend the authors' overall work in being able to effectively present the aims of the reform movement and its progression over time. I am especially was appreciative of what seemed to be a very critical analysis of the policies that came out of the “reformers” at the time. Yet, I do have some minor issues with how they seem to skim though the topic while forgetting to discuss some others important elements of the topic. For example, I thought it was odd that although the reform movement had some major issues within its ideals of "fixing democracy", they did not seem to focus on heavily on some of the positive benefits of the movement. Therefore, with this paper, I hope to hone into what I personally thought were fascinating elements of the reading, which was how the reform Movement was instrumental in establishing strong elite governmental policies against the typical machine city politics at the time, but also in some major cases discriminated and disenfranchised individuals in lower socioeconomic classes within those newly "reformed" cities.
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
...disrupting the equilibrium of American society, they confronted these issues and pushed for political, economic, and social reform. (H)
The Antebellum Era between the years of 1825 to 1850 was abundant with many reform movements that signified great change within the people of the nation. Although many of these changes were good and lasting reforms, extremists’ stark views did the contrary and inhibited change. Luckily, reform movements such as the women’s rights movement, the abolition of slavery, and temperance all led the nation in the right direction towards the expansion of democratic ideals. These ideals encompass the belief that all citizens are equal and are entitled to certain unalienable rights.
“The connection between the revivals of the Second Great Awakening and abolition was so strong that it would hardly be an overstatement to say that the revivals were responsible for antislavery becoming a radical national movement.” During the time period, evangelical religion underlay the culture of America to such an extent that the revivals of the 1830s resulted in “tangible” structures for social reform — the revivals touched many aspects of political and social life. The revivals implicitly created political obligations and led to a demand for an activist
... points in social reform from Jacksonian Democracy was abolition. The logic was that social reform also applied to slavery and almost more than any other institution. The reasoning behind this was that slaves resisted their own enslavement. Slavery was opposed in the 18th century by Quakers and few other whites, even though the American Revolution with its rhetoric about equal and universal rights called slavery into serious question. The Northern States abolished it and the Southern slave owners (upper south mind you) thought about liberating slaves. However it wasn’t until the 1830s that a number of middle class Norteños (northerners) began to demand immediate emancipation of slaves for their incorporation as equals in the Republic. Just as other social reforms had taken root with mostly radical Norteño Whigs, abolitionism soon found its way to them. This was a basis for the middle class revivals of the 1820s and 1830s.
The Antebellum period was a time of reform and improvement. After the War of 1812, America went through a period of westward expansion, patriotism and an economic emergence as a world power. Their new found power as a country inspired reformation. Abolitionists worked to end the institution of slavery through protests, rallies, and the formation of societies; women’s rights activists advocated in a similar way. Simultaneously, many Americans supported the government’s efforts to remove Native Americans from their own land. Americans during the Antebellum period were ambitious, but contradictory in their activism; while many activists fought for the rights of slaves and women, others sought to curtail rights of Native Americans.
The Effects of American Reform Movements in the 1900s Living in the United States of America is all about opportunity. The opportunity to get a good job, make money, and lead a life of good quality; in other words, the opportunity to live, live, and live the Pursuit of Happiness. However, the opportunity for many people was not around throughout the 1800s. Certain groups of people did not hold the basic rights that were guaranteed by the Constitution. In fact, most of the people that had opportunity were the wealthy white men, and few other people ever had any chance to lead a good life.
While some citizens of the United States, between 1825 and 1850, believed that reform was foolish and that the nation should stick to its old conduct, reformists in this time period still sought to make the United States a more ideally democratic nation. This was an age of nationalism and pride, and where there was pride in one’s country, there was the aspiration to improve one’s country even further. Many new reformist and abolitionist groups began to form, all attempting to change aspects of the United States that the respective groups thought to be unfair or unjust. Some groups, such as lower and middle class women and immigrants, sought to improve rights within the county, while other reformers aspired to change the American education system into a more efficient way of teaching the county’s youth. Still other reform groups, particularly involved in the church and the second great awakening, wanted to change society as a whole. This was a time and age of change, and all these reforms were intended to contribute to the democratic way our country operated.
Reform Judaism started as a response to the Enlightenment that occurred in the late 17th and the early 18th century. The Jewish people needed to determine how to best combine new ideologies with their religious practices. The Jewish people suddenly had a new, non-Jewish world that they could be apart of. Some started to lose interest in religion. The Reform Judaism movement was created to adapt to these changes in society. The movement’s fundamental belief was that religious change is good (Kaplan 183). Platforms were created to define the boundaries for Reform Judaism and show how the Reform Movement is different than the traditional form of Judaism (Meyer & Plaut 195). The Reform movement has undergone many significant changes of their ideologies including Israel and the Halacha. These changes display their core idea of adapting Judaism to the social environments but simultaneously always keeping the Jewish community bound together. These changes are made from 1885 to 1999 with the Pittsburgh Platform, Columbus Principles, and Statement of Principles.
Roark, J.L., Johnson, M.P., Cohen, P.C., Stage, S., Lawson, A., Hartmann, S.M. (2009). The american promise: A history of the united states (4th ed.), The New West and Free North 1840-1860, The slave south, 1820-1860, The house divided 1846-1861 (Vol. 1, pp. 279-354).
The radical push and pull on the national stage that Antebellum American muscled through outlined the disposition of the nation and it’s citizen. Antebellum American was torn in as far as the East is from the West primarily on the issue of slavery and its possible expansion in to other territories of the young nation. The essay by William W. Freehling brilliantly frames the political plight of Antebellum America, William W. Freehling extracts the core movements leading up to the American Civil War in his book Democracy and the Causes of Civil War .
The Age of Reform throughout 1825-1850 was a great turning point for American society. The ideas and beliefs throughout the reform movements greatly expanded the democratic ideals. Reform movements in the United States sought to express ideas through religion and education, start movements through abolition and temperance acts, expand beliefs by caring for the insane, and take a stand by speaking up for personal rights .
period of American history. Those working for a social change did so under a variety of
Max Weber’s work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is arguably one of the most important works in all of sociology and social theory, both classical and modern. In the decades since its inception, this work has gone on to influence generations of social scientists with its analysis of the effect of Protestantism on the development of modern industrial capitalism. This work, examining such broad topics as religion, economics, and history, is not only an interesting and insightful look into the history of the development of capitalism, but a major work in laying a foundation for future works of social theory. Max Weber’s main contention in this work is that what he calls the “Protestant Ethic” played a vital role in fostering the development of industrial capitalism in Europe and the United States. The Protestant Ethic was the idea found in some sects of Protestantism that one had a duty to God to succeed in their life’s work, but were bound to a lifestyle of asceticism that prevented them from spending the wealth they earned on themselves.