History 693C: Culture War & Progressive Reform

Frank Couvares

Fall 2007, Weds. 2:00 - 4:30

Synopsis:

From the end of the Civil War to the onset of the Great Depression, the US underwent dramatic economic and social changes associated with industrialization, migration, and urbanization. In politics, "Progressive" reformers of many stripes proposed moderate and radical reforms, from immigration restriction to women's suffrage, recognition of labor unions,social security, professionalization of government administration, regulation and even nationalization of corporations, etc. At the same time, the US was undergoing a complex and profound religious transformation that spurred what we today call "culture wars." Among Protestants, many mainstream denominations "liberalized; more evangelical groups embraced "fundamentalism;" and new, rapidly-growing groups, especially Pentacostalists, combined fundamentalism in theology with exuberant forms of worship, appealing especially to lower-class and marginalized Americans. At the same time, the Catholic population mushroomed as a result of immigration, leading to intensified anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant movements. The connections between these religious phenomena and socio-economic, cultural, and political change in this era have not been well studied. The purpose of this seminar is to connect them, taking a long view --from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, from the Woodhull trial to the Scopes trial; and a wide view -- one that keeps religion in focus, especially in its tendency to locate in the disordering of families, children , and gender roles, the central dynamic of the Progressive Era.

Syllabus: Not available

Course Website: Not available