"To Hesitate is Cowardly": Radicalism and American Manhood, 1870-1920

Abstract

Examination of newspapers, novels, images, and organizational materials from the Gilded Age and Progressive Era reveals that radical groups framed their masculinity within contemporary expectations of manhood in order in order to legitimize their radical theories. An investigation of five prominent radical groups--the Knights of Labor, Haymarket anarchists, Populists, Wobblies, and socialists--shows how radicals contested industrial-era capitalism by making the claim that capitalists had degraded workers' manhood. Thus, radicals called on workers to accept their radical programs as a means of regenerating their manhood. In response, the political and industrial elite successfully rebuffed radicalism, in part, by positioning the masculinity of radicals as existing outside of socially acceptable norms. This dissertation explores the discursive contest between radicals and their opponents and uncovers the interconnectedness between masculinity, politics, and economic theories during a crucial period in America's development as a nation.