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Women, Culture, and Community : Religion and Reform in Galveston, 1880-1920

By: Turner, Elizabeth HayesMaterial type: TextTextSeries: eBooks on DemandPublisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1997Description: 1 online resource (382 p.)ISBN: 9781601299598Subject(s): Middle class women | Middle class women - Texas - Galveston - History | Social action | Social problemsGenre/Form: Electronic books.Additional physical formats: Print version:: Women, Culture, and Community : Religion and Reform in Galveston, 1880-1920DDC classification: 305.4/09764/139 LOC classification: HQ1439.G35 T87 1997ebOnline resources: Click here to view this ebook.
Contents:
Contents; Introduction: The Multiple Meanings of Culture, Community, Religion, and Reform; 1 Disaster Strikes the Island City; 2 Women, Culture, and the Church: Memorials, Cemeteries, and Music; 3 Church Programs: Sunday School, Bible Classes, and Women''s Societies; 4 "A Blessing upon Our Labors": Women''s Benevolent Societies and Poor Relief; 5 Benevolent Institutions and Their Lady Managers; 6 Women''s Clubs; 7 After the Storm: Women, Public Policy, and Power; 8 "The Interest Has Never Lagged": African American Women and the Black Community; 9 Women Organizing for the Vote
10 The YWCA and Wage-Earning WomenConclusion: Toward Progressive Women''s Communities; Appendix A: An Essay on Methodology; Notes; Index
Summary: In this work, Elizabeth Turner addresses a central question in post-Reconstruction social history: why did middle-class women expand their activities from the private to the public sphere and begin, in the years just before World War I, an unprecedented activism? Using Galveston as a case study, Turner examines how a generally conservative, traditional environment could produce important women''s organizations for Progressive reform. She concludes that the women of Galveston, though slow to respond to national movements, were stirred to action on behalf of their local community. Local organizations, particularly Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, and traditional everyday social activities provided a nurturing environment for budding reformers, and a foundation for activist organizations and programs such as poor relief and progressive reform. Ultimately, women became politicized even as they continued their roles as guardians of traditional domestic values. Women, Culture, and Community will appeal to scholars and students of the post-Reconstruction South, women''s history, activist history, and religious history.
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Item type Current location Call number URL Status Date due Barcode
Electronic Book UT Tyler Online
Online 		HQ1439.G35 T87 1997eb (Browse shelf) http://uttyler.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=241609 Available EBL241609

Contents; Introduction: The Multiple Meanings of Culture, Community, Religion, and Reform; 1 Disaster Strikes the Island City; 2 Women, Culture, and the Church: Memorials, Cemeteries, and Music; 3 Church Programs: Sunday School, Bible Classes, and Women''s Societies; 4 "A Blessing upon Our Labors": Women''s Benevolent Societies and Poor Relief; 5 Benevolent Institutions and Their Lady Managers; 6 Women''s Clubs; 7 After the Storm: Women, Public Policy, and Power; 8 "The Interest Has Never Lagged": African American Women and the Black Community; 9 Women Organizing for the Vote

10 The YWCA and Wage-Earning WomenConclusion: Toward Progressive Women''s Communities; Appendix A: An Essay on Methodology; Notes; Index

In this work, Elizabeth Turner addresses a central question in post-Reconstruction social history: why did middle-class women expand their activities from the private to the public sphere and begin, in the years just before World War I, an unprecedented activism? Using Galveston as a case study, Turner examines how a generally conservative, traditional environment could produce important women''s organizations for Progressive reform. She concludes that the women of Galveston, though slow to respond to national movements, were stirred to action on behalf of their local community. Local organizations, particularly Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, and traditional everyday social activities provided a nurturing environment for budding reformers, and a foundation for activist organizations and programs such as poor relief and progressive reform. Ultimately, women became politicized even as they continued their roles as guardians of traditional domestic values. Women, Culture, and Community will appeal to scholars and students of the post-Reconstruction South, women''s history, activist history, and religious history.

Description based upon print version of record.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Turner's exhaustive research in records of Galveston's church societies, benevolent institutions, literary clubs, and civic associations yielded results that challenge the commonly accepted view of southern women reformers as evangelical Protestants leading crusades on moral grounds. According to Turner, elitism more than evangelicalism drove women activists in Galveston. By increasing their public responsibilities in the urban arena, not just as auxiliaries but as builders and primary decision-makers in secular institutions, women secured high status for themselves in the community. The greatest catalyst for their course was the hurricane that destroyed Galveston's infrastructure in 1900 and left 10,000 residents homeless. Turner shows that through careful management of relief efforts and general public health initiatives, white women's organizations mirrored the newly formed, all-male city commission government, which attempted to impose order and efficiency in the political realm. African American women developed separate reform networks because disfranchisement and segregation laws prevented interracial cooperation. This highly readable account reveals how significantly the effects of natural disaster can shape the relationship among politics, gender, and culture. An important contribution to women's history, southern history, and urban history. Upper-division undergraduates and above. M. A. McEuen Transylvania University

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