Muscular Christianity : manhood and sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920 / Clifford Putney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Putney, Clifford, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Protestant churches--United States--History.

Protestant churches.

Masculinity.

History.

Sports--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Masculinity--Religious aspects--Christianity.

United States.

Masculinity--Religious aspects--Christianity--History.

Sports--Religious aspects--Christianity--History.

Sports.

Masculinity--United States--History.

Sports--United States--History.

United States--Church history.

Church history.

United States--Social life and customs--1865-1918.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

x, 300 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2001.

Summary:

Dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, American men in the late nineteenth century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. One form of this new manly culture, developed out of the Protestant churches, was known as muscular Christianity. In this fascinating study, Clifford Putney details how Protestant leaders promoted competitive sports and physical education to create an ideal of Christian manliness. Though rooted in the new culture of manhood, muscular Christianity was conceived to reinvigorate Protestantism itself, which in the minds of many was increasingly failing to create masculine, forceful natures capable of withstanding an influx of Catholic immigrants.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [269]-280) and index.

ISBN:

0674006348

OCLC:

46835487