Mailan Harms January 15, 2025

What is the main claim of this This period of time was a new beginning of
chapter? industrialization and in this chapter we see
the rise of consumerism, scientific
discoveries, and the questioning of different
beliefs/religions.
MAIN Details/Answers/Explanation:
Ideas/Questions/Connections/Conclusions:
Commerce and Culture:
● Philadelphia hosted a Centennial Exposition in 1876 (basically a
The economy was really starting to change fair). Provided with lunchrooms and for richer people “expensive
French fare”
and develop duringt this time ● American food was starting to change a lot and have more variety
because of industrialization helped consumerism, which the
wealthy people obviously liked.
Women played a bigger role in society ● Science started to grow/new ideas
than before ● Middle class/working class- known as a broad identity
● Thomas Edison- entrepreneur, lightbulb, phonograph
● Mass production of products
YMCA ● Women were allowed in “consumer spaces” like department
stores and amusement parks because it attracted more overall
people. Women were often found in these department stores
Jim crow laws/discrimination against ● P.T. Barnum- promoted commercial domesticity, famous
travelling circus.
blacks ● William Filene- department store magnate
● Alexander Graham Bell- invented telephone in 1876
● Black women faced discrimination in public car services
Plessy v. ferguson ● Plessy v. Ferguson = whether or not racial segregation laws were
constitutional (specifically public facilities like cars and
bathrooms)
Industrialization helped consumerism ● Jim Crow Laws- based on a stereotyped black character
● Masculinity & rise of sports- purpose of athletics was to uphold
masculinity
National parks gained popularity ● Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA)- promoted athletic
fitness that combined evangelism “come to the Y”
● YMCA instructors invented basketball and volleyball as indoor
NACW games during the winter time because it was cold out
● At the same time, country clubs were a big hit; women and men
played tennis, swimming etc…
Science vs religion/faith was really starting ● For baseball in the 1880s and 1890s african americans were hired
to make people question their beliefs as players… there were also separate “Negro Leagues”
● As Americans began to get sick of the “indoors” there was an
because now there were all these new ideas epidemic of doing everything outside like bicycling, archery, golf,
of how the world realy came to be, or going to the beach
● National parks also started to get big
evolution, space beyond the solar system, ● John Muir- famous voice for the wilderness, religious, founded
and more… the Sierra Club in 1892 which preserved nature
● National Audubon Society- protected birds
Realism vs naturalism vs modernism Women, Men, and The Solitude of Self:
● E;ozabeth Cady Stanton- was a women’s rights activist, “solitude
of self”
● During this time, women were sought to contribute to community
service and have selfless acts
● The average # of kids a woman birthed went from 7 to 3.6 by
1900. This gave women more time to focus on other stuff
● Contraceptives were very stigmatized and was illegal at some
point… Comstock Act (1873)
● High school diploma became more important
● Only 2% attended college
● Women education grew, many more went to college and earned
degrees
● Women’s clubs; talked about problems like pollution, unsafe
working conditions, and poverty
● Maternalism- appealed to the role of being a mother
● Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)- limit alcohol
abuse by getting rid of certain liquor sales (bc of domestic
violence and abuse)
● National Association of Colored Women 1896- black women took
care of orphans, founded homes for elderly, advocated
temperance… basically same stuff as the WCTU… Ida B. Wells
● These two associations were kind of like rivals and competed
against eachother but eventually came together in the National
American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)...
● Eventually went beyond suffrage and shaped into feminism

Science and Faith:

● Until the belief of science, americans believed that the world was
6,000 yrs old and didn’t know anything beyond our solar system
● 1910s paleontologists dinosaurs, astronomers identifying other
galaxies, and of course evolution
● Evolution- idea that we as a species are always changing and
evolving. Charles Darwin
● The idea of natural selection (Darwin)
● Social Darwinism- the idea that some people are ultimately better
than others and that those people will survive in the economy and
social world. This is bad because the people who believed in this
idea also believed that people of the “lower races” like asian,
black, and native american were unfit. (went through
discrimination)
● Realism vs naturalism vs modernism
● Science was starting to challenge religion and faith.
● Catholics and Jewish came to the US and questionede whether or
not to adapt to Protestant American society
● Kosher practices
● “American women’
● American Protective Association (APA)- created by militant
protestants, nativist group, organization that promoted anti-
catholicism
● 1916 protestants 60% of Americans
● Social gospel- renewing religious faith
● Salvation Army- spread gospel
● Fundamentalism- described conservative evengaicalal protestants
 ● Billy Sunday- an american evngalist

Summary

This chapter highlighted the evolution of the new industrialization and how it affected women, men, black people, and
even the environment through the uprise of national parks. It also went into depth about new scientific findings which
conflict with existing religious beliefs. Science was starting to challenge religion and faith, and people were now
questioning their own beliefs.

Reflection and Analysis

1. Why did athletics become popular in the late-nineteenth-century United States? In what ways did this trend
represent broader changes in American society and culture? Many people were sick and tired of being stuck
indoors so they came up with the idea of doing everything outside, then came along outdoor activities such as
bicycling, swimming, and just hanging around outside. The YMCA was an organization created in order to
support men working out.

2. What changes in women’s private and public lives occurred in the decades after the Civil War, and how did
these affect women from different backgrounds? Why do you think emphasis on the status of “ladies” became
so insistent in this era? Many of these changes included the fact that women had more choice in the matter of
their reproductive health (they had less children and spaced out their pregnancies more for the benefit of the
fetus) and their workplace lives also changed. There were many “women’s clubs” like the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union (WCTU) which advocated for the temperance movement.

My questions…
Because of the new uprise of scientific discoveries, will atheism rise alongside that, or will the ratio of religion stay the
same?
How did the YMCA affect society?
How did the creation of national parks affect the US?