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Thomas Winter, Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Workingmen,
1877-1920) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002)
Description:
"During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the
United States transformed from an essentially agrarian society into an
urban, industrialized economy. In Making Men, Making Class, Thomas Winter
explores the impact of these profound changes on constructions of
manhood, using the YMCA's new efforts to reach out to railroad and
industrial workers as a case study.
Starting in the 1870s, the leaders ("secretaries") of the
YMCA sought to reduce political radicalism and labor unrest by instilling
new ideals of manliness among workers. By involving workingmen in a range
of activities on the job and off, the YMCA hoped to foster team spirit,
moral conduct, and new standards of manhood that would avoid conflict and
instead encourage cooperation along the lines of a Christian, pious
manliness. In their efforts to make better men, the secretaries of the
YMCA also crafted new ideals of middle-class manliness for themselves that
involved a sense of mission and social purpose. In doing so, they ended up
"making" class, too, as they began to speak a language of manhood
structured by class differences." (from publisher's catalog)
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