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+The Age of Reform
IntroductionThe reform movements were strongest in
New England and in areas of the Midwest settled by New Englanders
Penitentiaries and Asylums
Dorothea Dix fought for the establishment of insane asylums to treat the mentally ill
These programs were tied to the belief that deviancy could be erased by settling the deviants in the right environment
+Utopian Communities
A few reformers founded “ideal” or “utopian” communities
Demonstrate ways of life that they thought were superior to those prevailing in antebellum American
New Harmony, IN
Hopedale, MA
Brook Farm, MA
Most utopian communities were short lived
The Rise of Mormonism
Joseph Smith Started Mormonism in
1820’s In the Burned-Over District
Moved to Nauvoo, IL to start a model city Began practice of
polygamy Prosecuted by authorities
and attacked by mobs (murdered Smith in 1844)
The Rise of Mormonism (cont.)
The hostility that the Mormons encountered from others convinced Mormon leaders that they must separate themselves from American society
Brigham Young moved Mormons to the Great Salt Lake region in 1846
+The Shakers
Started by Mother Ann Lee in the U.S.A. in 1774
Founded separate religious communities
The Shakers rejected economic individualism and tried to withdraw from American society
They separated men and women
Banned marriage
Relied on converts and adoption to keep their numbers up
They pooled their land and tools and labor in the process of creating remarkably prosperous villages
Newspapers
James Gordon Bennett
Publisher of New York Herald
Used new techniques in paper making and printing
Used the telegraph
Build a mass circulation
+Newspapers (cont.)
The penny papers filled their columns with human-interest stories of crime and sex
Bennett’s New York Herald and Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune also pioneered in modern financial and political reporting
+The Theater
Antebellum theaters were filled with large, rowdy audiences from all social classes
People liked romantic melodramas best
William Shakespeare’s plays were performed the most of any other dramatist
+Introduction
“American Renaissance”After 1820“a flowering of literature”James FenimoreRalph Waldo EmersonWalt Whitman
Some sought to develop a new, unique American literature
Introduction (cont.)
The painters of the Hudson River School and Frederick Law Olmsted in his landscape design also offered distinctively American visions
+American Landscape Painting (cont.)
Hudson River School
Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic ChurchSubordinated realism to emotional
effectReflected the romanticism of the period
PBS Hudson River School
+American Landscape Painting
American artists sought to depict their native land
Especially in its primitive grandeur before pioneers deforested and plowed it
+American Landscape Painting (cont.)
New York’s Central Park Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and
Clavert Vaux Shared a romantic view of nature They aimed to refresh the souls of harried
urbanites by creating an idealized pastoral landscape in the midst of the city
Central Park History
Central Park map
+Roots of the American Renaissance
1820’s and 1830’s
2 things transformed the writing of fiction in the U.S.A.
The transportation revolution Opened a nationwide market for books
Spread of the romantic movement Romanticism stressed feelings rather than
learning Suited fiction well
Roots of the American Renaissance (cont.)
Women still were not admitted to most colleges
Women could publish best-selling romantic novels Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
+Conclusion
Between 1840 and 1860, new technology changed the lives of Americans
Advances in transportation and manufacturing helped the following: improved the American diet made a greater variety of necessities and
luxuries available at lower prices transformed leisure pursuits encouraged efforts to diffuse and popularize
culture
+Conclusion
Negative effects of technology:Increased the gap between the lifestyles of the reasonably affluent and the poor
Increased the gap between middle-class men and women
Led to assaults on America’s beautiful natural environment