justifications

I thought Bederman did an exceptional job at providing backgrounds on the discourse of civilization in general and how it is constantly evolving. I found her descriptions of the connotations between manhood to masculinity interesting, because before reading the book, I had always ascribed them to mean the same thing. However, upon further reading, I got the sense that in the late 19th century, American men were really struggling with an identity crisis. They truly felt they needed to assert their masculinity, and she provides they did so through race and gender. I had never heard of the Johnson/Jeffries fight, but I was really rooting for Johnson until I read that he was a braggart...but I guess that comes with the territory. I also never realized the significant role that T. Roosevelt played in the reaffirmation of male identity and manliness. I knew he was a rough rider, and had the whole speak softly and carry a big stick thing going on- but it REALLY surprised me when I saw that he was a proponent of racial turpitude. I didn't really like him as a president before, and this made me pretty much knock him off my top 40 president list...