History 476
20th
Century Youth Culture
Devine
STUDY QUESTIONS:
COLLEGE YOUTH, 1900-1930
Wechsler, Revolt on Campus
- According
to Wechsler’s Revolt on Campus, how did college students’ attitude
toward war change between the U.S. entry into World War I and the end of
the war?
- What
forms did student rebellion take during the 1920s? What, if any, goals did the rebels
espouse?
- What
did the radical or rebellious students find most disturbing about American
society during the 1920s?
- How
did the prosperity or “boom” of the 1920s affect the attitudes and
behavior of college students? By 1925, why had student radicals become frustrated?
- Why
did the journalist H.L. Mencken become influential among middle-class
college rebels? Was Mencken’s social criticism “radical”?
- According
to Wechsler, how did the emergence of “King Football” affect the spirit of
rebellion on campus?
Sheean,
“The Modern Gothic”
- What
impression of college life does Vincent Sheean
provide in his memoir? What seem to be the students’ priorities and
governing values? In retrospect, what does Sheean
seem to think of his fellow students?
- The
1920s are often portrayed as a period of cultural liberation and growing
tolerance, particularly among youth. To what extent does Sheean’s description of the University of Chicago
campus support or undermine this portrait?
- How
did life on campus differ depending on whether you were a “Greek,” a
“barb,” a ”grinder,” or in the Poetry Club?
- How
does Sheean assess the education he got at the
University of Chicago?
- How
do Wechsler and Sheean’s memoirs complicate
common stereotypes about 1920s “flaming youth”?
Gordon,
“The Gibson Girl Goes to College”
- Prior
to the Progressive Era, what kinds of objections were raised about women
going to College?
- How did the
popular image of the “Gibson girl” as “College girl” allay public concerns
about women attending college? In what ways did this image distort
reality?
- Why did some
support a “women’s curriculum” while others opposed it? What purpose did
it seem to serve?
- What messages
and “lessons” about proper gender roles did mass magazines convey in their
stories about College girls?
- How did magazine
articles about “College girls” help to “contain” societal fears about the
“New Woman”?
- How did the
image of the Gibson girl both facilitate growing acceptance of educated
women but also reinforce (rather than challenge) traditional gender roles?
Clarke, “Athletes and
Frats, Romance and Rowdies”
- How did the changing
image of the “College man”
reveal that purpose of college was
changing?
- What social,
economic, and cultural factors were undermining traditional notions of the
“self-made man” at the turn of the twentieth century? What activities and
institutions allowed men to bridge the gap between traditional and modern
conceptions of masculinity?
- According to
Clarke, why was College the “perfect site” to reshape masculine identity?
How did popular magazines depict this new identity?
- How did
athletics, particularly football, enable College men to blend their
“primitive” and “civilized” sides? Why was such a
combination considered “ideal” during this period?
- How did James
Hopper’s football stories reassure a professional male audience that was
grappling with the social changes brought on by industrialization and the
rise of the big corporation?
- How did magazine
profiles of Presidents and other politicians reflect the shifting image of
the “College man”? How did Theodore Roosevelt embody the ideal combination
of qualities expected in the ideal “College man”?
- How does the
idealized character of “Duggie,” captain of the
football team, compare to the real “College men” that Wechsler and Sheean describe?
- How did popular
magazines play a crucial role in changing public perceptions of college
life and in refashioning middle-class male identity?