Fighting for Ameican Manhood

Omar Perez-Velazco Hist. 460 Dr. McDonough February 18, 2013 Since the bloodline of time the topic of human sex activity its differences has been a controversial subject that forever attracts attention. After the Spanish-Ameri backside War, rough workforce were seen as heroes, some even put into burning(prenominal) positions in our nations political science. Men desire McKinley and Roosevelt, for example, apply such(prenominal) praise and recognition to pay back their positions of death chair and, later on, Vice chairperson, respectively. virtuoso of the men who benefited from this line of thought was President McKinley, who no doubt was delighted to start out down that existence a commander in chief during a war restored his grasp as a capable loss leader (110). Roosevelt was a man with power, being the supporter secretary of the navy, but he gave it up to join 1st unify give tongue to Volunteer Cavalry, more commonly know as the Rough Riders. He certain nation liberal praise and e trulyone knew him as a hero. Two years later, Roosevelts military machine record helped him win the vice presidential s bunch on the Republican tag (112).Women held m whatever another(prenominal) important roles during this war, such as nurses. succession women were vital to the war effort, many people did little to spread the news. In magazines and newspapers of the time, stories glorifying soldiers and sailors are hard to miss. In telephone circuit, stories blanket womens wartime contributions are difficult to square off (128). How does considering sex change our views of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars? This is the argument that Kristin Hoganson makes in armed combat for American Manhood.I believe that without the upkeep of women in the camps, the wars would have gone overmuch differently. This book shows how international relations touched ideas about gender, how gendered ideas about political self-assurance affected American d emocracy in an imperial era, and how high politics served as a vibrant locus of ethnical struggle (14). I can obligate with the former on all these charge ups and I believe that women and too minorities during the wars had a coarse impact from their local factories and towns. Fighting for American Manhood collects its information from a wide variety f sources, some being magazines and journal articles, and others being more in depth, like family letters. There is also a large quantity of political cartoons from the time, word-painting such people as President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and the iconic Uncle Sam. Some of the primary sources, the letters, descend from places like the Alabama Department of autobiography and History, or the Cincinnati Historical Society, which provided information in the form of the Wheeler Family Papers, and the Joseph Benson Foraker Papers, respectively.While a lot of these family accounts were safely in the hands of the state, many other ac counts from the day were residing in university libraries, such as the Harvard University Houghton Library, and the University of North Carolina Wilson Library southern Historical Collection, from which Hoganson uses the Theodore Roosevelt Collection, from the Charles Eliot Norton Papers, and the Edward Ward Carmack Papers, respectively. The secondary sources that the author compiled were mostly magazine entries and newspaper articles, like those from the New York Times, or the Washington Post.The chapter that I found most evoke was Chapter 6 The Problem of Male Degeneracy and the invite of the Philippines. I was just amazed with the United States when our government, using the power of the Treaty of Paris, unflinching for the Philippines that they emergencyed to be ceded into the United States. The relaxation treaty with Spain, signed on declination 10, ceded the Philippines along with Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. The treaty, know as the Treaty of Paris, then went to the U. S Senate for ratification.But the Philippines who had been fighting for independence from Spain did not want to be ceded (133). This angered the Filipino nationalists and just about brought an all out war. The reasons that the U. S government officials gave to try and justify their takeover of these territories also surprised me and showed me just how far some countries will go to expand, both physically and mentally. Imperialists based their assertions that the Filipinos were unfit for independence on triplet stereotypes that gave meaning to racial prejudices by drawing on ideas about gender.All three presented the Filipinos as lacking the manly geek seen as necessary for self-government (134). These men were considered less than human, along with Native and African Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter because of all the different aspects it covers related to gender and the ceding of the Filipino territories. The chapter that I found least interesting was Chapter 2 Cuba and the Restoration of American Chivalry. While the information in the chapter was important to get the main argument across, it just didnt appeal to me, and it didnt get any better in my opinion as I kept reading.American citizens fantasized about the Cuban rebels, about how chivalrous the men were and how answerable and loyal wives the Cuban women are. In contrast to American men, who seemed to be losing sight of past values in their single-minded following of riches, Cuban men appeared to exemplify bold character (47). American men force inspiration from these fantasies, often showing how Cuban men drew their inspiration from women in illustrations and cartoons. Their images as acquiescent, traditional women made Cuban women seem to be perfect womanish foils for assertive American women.In addition to visual aspect well worth defending, Cuban women appeared eagre for rescue (46). This chapter was important to getting the point across but I snarl like it was sort of out of place. Fighting for American Manhood is a very interesting read and it really makes me think. When did anyone all really stop and think so deeply about how gender can affect wars? The book is unique and I recommend it to anyone who wants to study the topic of gender affecting war.