The Nation's Mission: Social Movements and Nation-Building in the United States

Long after the American revolution, social movements played important roles in the development of the United States as a nation, helping to define and express identities that were both larger and smaller than the nation itself. Movements that were founded to advance certain goals — temperance, religious conversion, or the abolition of slavery — consciously helped to shape and define “Americanness” and therefore played an important role in constituting the nation itself. Movements inspired by Protestantism have been a particular force. To outsiders — immigrants, the irreligious, non-Protestants, or foreigners — American social movements sought to impose American civilization on peoples, lands, and nations outside their cultural or political domain, all justified as a mission sanctioned and supervised by God.Longtemps après la fin de la Guerre de l’indépendance, les mouvements sociaux ont joué d’importants rôles dans le développement des États-Unis en tant que nation, aidant à définir et à exprimer des identités à la fois plus grandes et plus petites que la nation même. Les mouvements voués à la défense de certaines causes — la tempérance, la conversion religieuse ou l’abolition de l’esclavage — ont consciemment aidé à façonner et à définir l’« américanité » et ont donc joué un rôle de premier plan dans l’édification de la nation. Les mouvements inspirés du protestantisme ont été particulièrement forts. Aux étrangers — les immigrants, les irréligieux, les non-protestants ou les étrangers —, les mouvements sociaux américains cherchèrent à imposer la civilisation américaine aux gens, territoires et nations hors de leur sphère culturelle ou politique, tout cela au nom d’une mission sanctionnée et supervisée par Dieu

Women in an Evangelical Community: Oberlin 1835-50

Oberlin College is frequently mentioned in connection with women\u27s education, women\u27s rights, or the struggle for women\u27s emancipation. The following passage from the 1834 First Circular is invariably cited: Oberlin\u27s founders strove for … the elevation of female character, by bringing within the reach of the misjudged and neglected sex, all the instructive privileges which hitherto have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs. Discussions seek to prove either that Oberlin is to be praised for its correct and liberated goals, or that it is to be condemned for hypocrisy in not going as far as publicized in the First Circular. A brief survey of the literature concerning women at Oberlin clarifies what is lacking in the analysis. One strand of thought applauds the coming of coeducation for opening up new paths for American women. James Fairchild, at various times student, teacher, and president of Oberlin College, found himself the defender of Oberlin\u27s experiment, and of coeducation in general. Twenty years after criticizing women who spoke in public, he became the spokesman for coeducation, on the grounds that it worked

Women in an Evangelical Community: Oberlin 1835-50

Oberlin College is frequently mentioned in connection with women\u27s education, women\u27s rights, or the struggle for women\u27s emancipation. The following passage from the 1834 First Circular is invariably cited: Oberlin\u27s founders strove for … the elevation of female character, by bringing within the reach of the misjudged and neglected sex, all the instructive privileges which hitherto have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs. Discussions seek to prove either that Oberlin is to be praised for its correct and liberated goals, or that it is to be condemned for hypocrisy in not going as far as publicized in the First Circular. A brief survey of the literature concerning women at Oberlin clarifies what is lacking in the analysis. One strand of thought applauds the coming of coeducation for opening up new paths for American women. James Fairchild, at various times student, teacher, and president of Oberlin College, found himself the defender of Oberlin\u27s experiment, and of coeducation in general. Twenty years after criticizing women who spoke in public, he became the spokesman for coeducation, on the grounds that it worked