Johnson states that in the early 19th century, the United States of America was developing as both a liberal democratic society, with an ethos of individualism, and as a capitalist economy, with influential middle and business classes. In the early decades of the 19th Century, Rochester was a rapidly growing and economically developing community. Its position on the early canal system helped make it a center for regional trade and early manufacturing. The manufacturing and sale of products came to be increasingly based in specialized buildings, which utilized management and wage laborers. A growing middle class and business owning class arose in the city, whose conditions included a relatively increased standard of living, and higher levels …show more content…
He contends that the middle and business classes of Rochester were the largest and earliest embracers of religious revivalism. Evangelical religious conversion provided the middle class and business owners with ethical codes to de jure guide their behavior and put forward a public image of virtue. The tendencies of these religious revivalist groups to emphasize individual effort in spiritual fulfillment, self-control, and the virtue of acting to improve conditions in the world, could be interpreted to compliment their place within a democratic capitalist …show more content…
Walters describes the focus of his book as seeking an understanding of reform movements in terms of how the messages and efforts of these movements resonated with the social and cultural factors of American society. Walters defines reform movements as arising from people declaring something to be problem, envisioning a goal for remedying it, and establishing an organized effort to achieve their intended change. He describes reform activity as one of multiple choices for people in the 19th century to react to the conditions and changes within American society, which part of the population embraced, due to the appeal of the ideas to them and social conditions enabling them to afford to follow through on the matter. Walters approaches Antebellum reform by covering the United States of America overall. He also claims that the reformism of the Antebellum period was distinct and had little connection with the reform movements of the Progressive era, and that periods of war segmented periods of reform in the United States. Thus, he treats the reform movements of 1815-1860, as an interconnected element within the systems of
I commend the authors' overall work in being able to effectively present the aims of the reform movement and its progression over time. I am especially was appreciative of what seemed to be a very critical analysis of the policies that came out of the “reformers” at the time. Yet, I do have some minor issues with how they seem to skim though the topic while forgetting to discuss some others important elements of the topic. For example, I thought it was odd that although the reform movement had some major issues within its ideals of "fixing democracy", they did not seem to focus on heavily on some of the positive benefits of the movement. Therefore, with this paper, I hope to hone into what I personally thought were fascinating elements of the reading, which was how the reform Movement was instrumental in establishing strong elite governmental policies against the typical machine city politics at the time, but also in some major cases discriminated and disenfranchised individuals in lower socioeconomic classes within those newly "reformed" cities.
“The connection between the revivals of the Second Great Awakening and abolition was so strong that it would hardly be an overstatement to say that the revivals were responsible for antislavery becoming a radical national movement.” During the time period, evangelical religion underlay the culture of America to such an extent that the revivals of the 1830s resulted in “tangible” structures for social reform — the revivals touched many aspects of political and social life. The revivals implicitly created political obligations and led to a demand for an activist
... points in social reform from Jacksonian Democracy was abolition. The logic was that social reform also applied to slavery and almost more than any other institution. The reasoning behind this was that slaves resisted their own enslavement. Slavery was opposed in the 18th century by Quakers and few other whites, even though the American Revolution with its rhetoric about equal and universal rights called slavery into serious question. The Northern States abolished it and the Southern slave owners (upper south mind you) thought about liberating slaves. However it wasn’t until the 1830s that a number of middle class Norteños (northerners) began to demand immediate emancipation of slaves for their incorporation as equals in the Republic. Just as other social reforms had taken root with mostly radical Norteño Whigs, abolitionism soon found its way to them. This was a basis for the middle class revivals of the 1820s and 1830s.
The Antebellum period was a time of reform and improvement. After the War of 1812, America went through a period of westward expansion, patriotism and an economic emergence as a world power. Their new found power as a country inspired reformation. Abolitionists worked to end the institution of slavery through protests, rallies, and the formation of societies; women’s rights activists advocated in a similar way. Simultaneously, many Americans supported the government’s efforts to remove Native Americans from their own land. Americans during the Antebellum period were ambitious, but contradictory in their activism; while many activists fought for the rights of slaves and women, others sought to curtail rights of Native Americans.
The Effects of American Reform Movements in the 1900s Living in the United States of America is all about opportunity. The opportunity to get a good job, make money, and lead a life of good quality; in other words, the opportunity to live, live, and live the Pursuit of Happiness. However, the opportunity for many people was not around throughout the 1800s. Certain groups of people did not hold the basic rights that were guaranteed by the Constitution. In fact, most of the people that had opportunity were the wealthy white men, and few other people ever had any chance to lead a good life.
While some citizens of the United States, between 1825 and 1850, believed that reform was foolish and that the nation should stick to its old conduct, reformists in this time period still sought to make the United States a more ideally democratic nation. This was an age of nationalism and pride, and where there was pride in one’s country, there was the aspiration to improve one’s country even further. Many new reformist and abolitionist groups began to form, all attempting to change aspects of the United States that the respective groups thought to be unfair or unjust. Some groups, such as lower and middle class women and immigrants, sought to improve rights within the county, while other reformers aspired to change the American education system into a more efficient way of teaching the county’s youth. Still other reform groups, particularly involved in the church and the second great awakening, wanted to change society as a whole. This was a time and age of change, and all these reforms were intended to contribute to the democratic way our country operated.
Reform Judaism started as a response to the Enlightenment that occurred in the late 17th and the early 18th century. The Jewish people needed to determine how to best combine new ideologies with their religious practices. The Jewish people suddenly had a new, non-Jewish world that they could be apart of. Some started to lose interest in religion. The Reform Judaism movement was created to adapt to these changes in society. The movement’s fundamental belief was that religious change is good (Kaplan 183). Platforms were created to define the boundaries for Reform Judaism and show how the Reform Movement is different than the traditional form of Judaism (Meyer & Plaut 195). The Reform movement has undergone many significant changes of their ideologies including Israel and the Halacha. These changes display their core idea of adapting Judaism to the social environments but simultaneously always keeping the Jewish community bound together. These changes are made from 1885 to 1999 with the Pittsburgh Platform, Columbus Principles, and Statement of Principles.
Religion of the protestant church was an important factor in the pre-war timeline culture. The Second great awakening, which occurred in the 19th century, greatly impacted American society. This new point of view in terms and matters of faith led northerners to cherish the theory of Christian perfection, a theory that in fact was applied to society in an attempt to eliminate social imperfection. On the other hand, southerners reacted by cherishing a faith of personal piety, which focused mainly on a reading of the Bible; however, it expressed very little concern in addressing society’s problems.1
period of American history. Those working for a social change did so under a variety of
The radical push and pull on the national stage that Antebellum American muscled through outlined the disposition of the nation and it’s citizen. Antebellum American was torn in as far as the East is from the West primarily on the issue of slavery and its possible expansion in to other territories of the young nation. The essay by William W. Freehling brilliantly frames the political plight of Antebellum America, William W. Freehling extracts the core movements leading up to the American Civil War in his book Democracy and the Causes of Civil War .
Roark, J.L., Johnson, M.P., Cohen, P.C., Stage, S., Lawson, A., Hartmann, S.M. (2009). The american promise: A history of the united states (4th ed.), The New West and Free North 1840-1860, The slave south, 1820-1860, The house divided 1846-1861 (Vol. 1, pp. 279-354).
The Age of Reform throughout 1825-1850 was a great turning point for American society. The ideas and beliefs throughout the reform movements greatly expanded the democratic ideals. Reform movements in the United States sought to express ideas through religion and education, start movements through abolition and temperance acts, expand beliefs by caring for the insane, and take a stand by speaking up for personal rights .
...disrupting the equilibrium of American society, they confronted these issues and pushed for political, economic, and social reform. (H)
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
Max Weber’s work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is arguably one of the most important works in all of sociology and social theory, both classical and modern. In the decades since its inception, this work has gone on to influence generations of social scientists with its analysis of the effect of Protestantism on the development of modern industrial capitalism. This work, examining such broad topics as religion, economics, and history, is not only an interesting and insightful look into the history of the development of capitalism, but a major work in laying a foundation for future works of social theory. Max Weber’s main contention in this work is that what he calls the “Protestant Ethic” played a vital role in fostering the development of industrial capitalism in Europe and the United States. The Protestant Ethic was the idea found in some sects of Protestantism that one had a duty to God to succeed in their life’s work, but were bound to a lifestyle of asceticism that prevented them from spending the wealth they earned on themselves.