Dorsey, Bruce. Reforming Men and Women: Gender in the Antebellum City. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.
Thesis: Dorsey argues that "gender provided men and women with a powerful set of meanings by which to interpret their daily relationships" in Antebellum America and that his study presents "men as gendered beings" because manhood is a "crucial category of analysis in the study of the history of the United States (243)."
Themes: One of the themes of the texts is stereotypes/stock characters. One of the main things that occurred in Antebellum America is the oppression of minorities and by reducing them to stereotypes and stock characters in print media and entertainment, the white male could help keep the minorities oppressed and negatively …show more content…
He uses articles from a variety of journals: America Historical Review, American Quarterly, Journal of American History, Journal of the American Temperance Union, Journal of the Early Republic, Journal of Social History, Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and William and Mary Quarterly. He uses two large volumes of secondary work: History of Philadelphia Vol. 3 and History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1. Examples of the monographs Dorsey uses are, Lori D. Ginzberg 's Women and the Work of Benevolence and Gary B. Nash 's Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia 's Black Community, 1720-1860.
Methods Statement: Through the utilization of local and personal documents, as well as many secondary sources, and through demonstrating the various aspects of Antebellum life in America: Reformers, Poverty, Slavery, and Immigration, Dorsey is able to "demonstrate the profound impact of gender on the social issues that affected men 's and women 's lives in the Urban …show more content…
Because it is exploring men in regards to gender as well as women, there are plenty of sources. Dorsey agrees that there does need to be more on the study of the white male in history, but that more needs to be studied about the male gender. He is able to cultivate the massive amount of resources on the white male in America that are available, and put a whole new spin on the white male history.
Weaknesses: The title is the biggest weakness to me, because I felt that there would be equal attention given to both males and females in the study, and was surprised to see that it was mostly a study of the male gender- not a bad thing, but misleading. There is also not a lot of information on African American gender studies, but it can be assumed that there are not a lot of sources on that topic. In regards to African American studies, he really only goes into their oppression and the all the ways that white males would define their own gender against being everything that the African American male was
Thesis: Dorsey argues that "gender provided men and women with a powerful set of meanings by which to interpret their daily relationships" in Antebellum America and that his study presents "men as gendered beings" because manhood is a "crucial category of analysis in the study of the history of the United States (243)."
Themes: One of the themes of the texts is stereotypes/stock characters. One of the main things that occurred in Antebellum America is the oppression of minorities and by reducing them to stereotypes and stock characters in print media and entertainment, the white male could help keep the minorities oppressed and negatively …show more content…
He uses articles from a variety of journals: America Historical Review, American Quarterly, Journal of American History, Journal of the American Temperance Union, Journal of the Early Republic, Journal of Social History, Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and William and Mary Quarterly. He uses two large volumes of secondary work: History of Philadelphia Vol. 3 and History of Woman Suffrage Vol. 1. Examples of the monographs Dorsey uses are, Lori D. Ginzberg 's Women and the Work of Benevolence and Gary B. Nash 's Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia 's Black Community, 1720-1860.
Methods Statement: Through the utilization of local and personal documents, as well as many secondary sources, and through demonstrating the various aspects of Antebellum life in America: Reformers, Poverty, Slavery, and Immigration, Dorsey is able to "demonstrate the profound impact of gender on the social issues that affected men 's and women 's lives in the Urban …show more content…
Because it is exploring men in regards to gender as well as women, there are plenty of sources. Dorsey agrees that there does need to be more on the study of the white male in history, but that more needs to be studied about the male gender. He is able to cultivate the massive amount of resources on the white male in America that are available, and put a whole new spin on the white male history.
Weaknesses: The title is the biggest weakness to me, because I felt that there would be equal attention given to both males and females in the study, and was surprised to see that it was mostly a study of the male gender- not a bad thing, but misleading. There is also not a lot of information on African American gender studies, but it can be assumed that there are not a lot of sources on that topic. In regards to African American studies, he really only goes into their oppression and the all the ways that white males would define their own gender against being everything that the African American male was