Chapter 17: Making Modern American Culture, 1880–1917
I. Science, Faith, and the Arts
This section covers the intellectual and religious turmoil caused by Darwinism and the cultural response in
literature and religion.
Term / Person Definition & Significance Cause/Effect/Timeline Note
Social Darwinism A corrupted application of Timeline Note: Gained growing
Darwin's ideas, asserting that acceptance in the 1870s, used to
ruthless competition in human justify class inequality and
society was natural and beneficial discourage government
("survival of the fittest"). regulation.
Championed by Herbert
Spencer.
Eugenics A movement advocating for Significance: Led to mandatory
selective breeding of humans. sterilization laws in many states; a
Argued that "unfit" individuals prime example of racist science
(often non-white or poor) should applied to public policy.
be prevented from reproducing.
Realism An art and literature movement Key Figure: Mark Twain
that sought to accurately portray (Samuel Langhorne Clemens),
life as it was, focusing on who famously rejected
everyday details and social romanticism in favor of local
realities. dialects and ordinary experiences.
Naturalism A literary extension of Realism; it Comparison: Even more
suggested that human destiny was pessimistic than Realism; focused
determined by uncontrollable on characters struggling against
external forces (heredity, societal or natural forces.
environment, nature).
Modernism An intellectual and aesthetic Timeline Note: The 1913
movement (late 19th/early 20th Armory Show in New York City
century) that rejected traditional showcased European modern art,
Victorian morals and aesthetic shocking the American public and
conventions, focusing on marking the arrival of
subjective experience, Modernism.
fragmentation, and ambiguity.
Fundamentalism A conservative Protestant Comparison: Directly opposed
movement that emerged in the Social Gospel and scientific
reaction to Liberal Protestantism theories like evolution.
and Modernism. It insisted on the
literal truth and biblical
authority of every word in the
Bible.
Billy Sunday An influential, charismatic, and Significance: Represented the
powerful professional baseball movement toward mass-
player turned evangelical marketed, emotionally charged
Protestant preacher. religious revivalism, aligning
himself with Fundamentalism and
Prohibition.
Social Gospel A movement by Liberal Key Leader: Walter
Protestants urging Christians to Rauschenbusch. Led to the
tackle urban poverty and societal creation of institutions like
injustice. settlement houses.
II. Commerce, Consumption, and the Public Sphere
This section details how mass consumption, new forms of entertainment, and changing views on nature shaped
American public life.
Term / Person Definition & Significance Cause/Effect/Timeline Note
Thomas Edison America's greatest inventor, Key Inventions: Electric light
whose laboratory at Menlo Park, bulb, phonograph, and motion
NJ, pioneered the system of picture camera, which
corporate research and fundamentally shaped the modern
development. consumer and entertainment
landscape.
Young Men's Christian A powerful social and religious Function: Used to maintain a
Association (YMCA) organization that provided sense of male independence and
separate social spaces for men, brotherhood, particularly for
focusing on physical and white-collar workers in cities.
character development.
Baseball's National League The first professional sports Timeline Note: Founded in 1876.
league. Professionalized leisure
and provided a new, disciplined
way for men to assert masculinity.
Negro Leagues Professional baseball Significance: Maintained a high
organizations formed by and for level of professional competition
black players after they were and fostered community pride
barred from Major League despite segregation.
Baseball in the 1890s due to racial
exclusion.
Sierra Club A major environmental Key Figure & Timeline Note:
preservation organization founded Founded by John Muir in 1892.
to protect mountain regions and
forests.
National Park Service (NPS) Federal agency created to manage Timeline Note: Created in 1916.
and protect the U.S. National
Parks and Monuments.
Antiquities Act Federal law passed in 1906 that Significance: Used extensively
gives the President the authority by presidents (starting with
to create National Monuments Theodore Roosevelt) to preserve
from federal lands to protect large tracts of land.
significant natural or cultural
features.
Lacey Act (1900) Federal law that protected wildlife Significance: A victory for
by banning the illegal importation groups like the Audubon
and sale of wild animals and birds Societies, marking an early
across state lines. success for conservation
legislation.
Charles Sheldon Author of the popular 1896 novel Significance: His book was a
In His Steps, which coined the central text of the Social Gospel
phrase, "What would Jesus do?" movement, urging Christians to
(WWJD). apply Christian ethics to daily life
and social problems.
III. Family, Education, and Civic Activism
This section addresses changing family dynamics, expanding educational opportunities, and the rise of organized
women's movements.
Term / Person Definition & Significance Cause/Effect/Timeline Note
Comstock Act Federal law passed in 1873 that Effect: Limited women's access
banned the distribution of all to reproductive and public health
"obscene or lewd" materials information for decades.
through the mail, including most
information on birth control and
sexually transmitted diseases.
Jim Crow A pervasive system of racial Effect: Systematically
segregation in the South disenfranchised and degraded
following Reconstruction, African Americans.
characterized by laws, customs,
and violence that legally
mandated separation in all public
facilities.
Plessy v. Ferguson A landmark 1896 Supreme Court Effect: Legalized racial
decision that upheld the segregation for the next six
constitutionality of Jim Crow decades.
laws, ruling that "separate but
equal" facilities for blacks and
whites did not violate the
Fourteenth Amendment.
Booker T. Washington The nation's most prominent Key Speech & Philosophy:
black leader from 1890 until his Delivered the Atlanta
death, who founded the Tuskegee Compromise Address (1895),
Institute (1881). advocating for African Americans
to focus on economic self-reliance
through vocational training
(Accommodation) before
demanding social or political
rights.
Atlanta Compromise The name given to Booker T. Comparison: Strongly criticized
Washington's 1895 speech. It by W.E.B. Du Bois for sacrificing
urged black Americans to accept political equality.
temporary segregation and
disfranchisement in exchange for
economic opportunity and
education.
Maternalism The ideological argument used by Significance: Provided a
female activists that women, politically acceptable justification
because of their unique status as for women to enter the public
wives and mothers, had a special sphere.
moral duty to clean up society and
politics.
Woman's Christian Founded in 1874, this Key Leader & Timeline Note:
Temperance Union (WCTU) organization focused initially on Led by Frances Willard (peak
Prohibition. influence 1879–1892), who
broadened its agenda to include
suffrage and social welfare ("Do
Everything" policy).
National Association of Colored Formed in 1896 by black women Motto: "Lifting as We Climb."
Women (NACW) activists. Focused on community
health, education, and suffrage
while explicitly fighting racism.
Ida B. Wells African American journalist and Significance: Exposed the false
activist who launched a national justifications for lynching, often
campaign against lynching in the forcing public attention onto the
1890s. violence.
National American Woman Formed in 1890 by merging two Key Figures: Elizabeth Cady
Suffrage Association (NAWSA) older suffrage organizations. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
Focused on winning the right to
vote.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Veteran suffrage leader. Key Speech & Timeline Note:
Delivered the "solitude of self"
speech to Congress in 1892,
arguing that individual self-
sovereignty was the ultimate
argument for women's rights.
Feminism A term that emerged in the early Comparison: More radical than
20th century to describe the maternalism, seeking individual
demand for full equality, not just liberation and sexual freedom.
access to education or social
reform.
IV. Chapter 17 Key Timeline Events (1870–1916)
This section summarizes the most important dates and events that shaped modern American culture.
Year Event Significance
1870s Social Darwinism gains growing Provides intellectual justification
acceptance for industrial consolidation and
inequality.
1873 Comstock Act Federal ban on mailing "obscene"
materials, limiting reproductive
health information.
1876 Baseball's National League Marks the beginning of
founded professional spectator sports.
1879 Salvation Army established in Major religious organization
the U.S. dedicated to urban social relief
(aligned with Social Gospel).
1879–1892 Peak influence of WCTU Shows the power of women's
organized maternalist activism.
1881 Tuskegee Institute founded Center of vocational education
and Booker T. Washington's
influence.
1887–1898 American Protective Period of peak nativist and anti-
Association (APA) active Catholic political activism.
1890 NAWSA founded Unification of the main woman
suffrage movements.
1892 Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivers Key argument for individual, self-
"solitude of self" speech sovereign rights for women.
1892 John Muir founds Sierra Club Birth of a major environmental
preservation organization.
1893 Chicago World's Columbian Showcased American ingenuity
Exposition and celebrated the 400th
anniversary of Columbus's arrival.
1895 Booker T. Washington delivers Establishes the philosophy of
Atlanta Compromise accommodation and economic
focus for black progress.
1896 NACW founded The national organization for
black women's civic and rights
activism.
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson legalizes Supreme Court ruling that
"separate but equal" cemented Jim Crow segregation
nationwide.
1900 Lacey Act protects wildlife Early federal success for the
conservation movement.
1906 Antiquities Act Gives the President power to
create National Monuments for
preservation.
1913 Armory Show of modern art held Introduces European Modernism
in NYC to America.
1916 National Park Service created Federal agency established to
manage the park system.