History 305

Devine

Fall 2006

 

Study Questions

 

Lewis Erenberg, Steppin’ Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930

 

 These questions are intended to help guide your reading.  If you print this document and jot notes on it as you proceed through the reading, you will be well-prepared for the discussion on Monday night.

 

1. Why did the “social elite” respond positively to the “public privacy” offered at the cabarets?

 

2. How did the rise of the cabaret affect the Victorians’ self-imposed “code of gentility?”

 

3. How did a young man achieve success according to the Victorian code? How did the code shape the life and behavior of the “refined woman?”

 

4. How did changes in the theatre from 1830-1890 reflect the rise of Victorian culture?

 

5. What cultural messages or lessons did the circuses and theatrical melodramas of the late 19th Century try to convey?

 

6. How did prostitution help to maintain the Victorian code?

 

7. How does the author characterize the “genteel style” that had reached its zenith during the 1890s? How had this style shaped relations between men and women? 

 

8. How did the opening of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at the turn of the century reveal that a new cultural style was beginning to emerge?  How did “Peacock Alley” typify and cater to the new style?

 

9. How, by the turn of the century, had society changed its way of measuring social status?  What had caused this change?

 

10.What was the difference between an event thrown by Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Fish?  What do the differences tell us about the social changes that were occurring?

 

11. Why did “new money” people like to dine at the Broadway lobster palaces?

 

12. Why does Erenberg consider eating at fancy restaurants “a perfect symbol for the age?”  [See page 50]

 

13. How did the new Broadway restaurants help maintain the double standard?

 

14. Why did reformers target modern amusements?  How were their attacks linked to their desire to protect the traditional family from the corruption of the city?  Why was the city itself a threat?

 

15. What was the reformers three-pronged strategy to preserve the family?  [See pages 64-65]

 

16. What was Tony Pastor’s contribution to the rise of Vaudeville?  How did Vaudeville reflect new values and tastes?  Why was it a difficult target for reformers?

 

17. Why might Houdini have been appealing to men (on both a conscious and unconscious level) at the turn of the century?

 

18. Why did reformers see movies as a threat?  Why did they also see them as having potential as a force for good?

 

19. How did changes in popular music (“After the Ball” à Ragtime) reflect larger cultural changes? Why was the rise of black music particularly threatening to “respectable” urbanites?  [See page 74]

 

20. How did society’s acceptance of the cabaret affect the relationship between middle class men and women?

 

21. What did the Eugenia Kelly case [See page 77-78] reveal about larger cultural concerns regarding cabarets?

 

22. How did reformers’ assumptions about the “essential nature” of women and their duties to the family fuel the crusade against cabarets?

 

23. Why was the intermingling of the classes [particularly middle class women mixing with working class men] a threat to Victorian values?

 

24. Explain the “threat” of the “tango pirate.”  What social fears did he elicit?   How did portrayals of the “tango pirate” reveal contemporary attitudes about “proper” and “improper” masculinity?

 

25. How did pre-1912 dances differ from post-1912 dances?  How did changes in the styles of dances reveal changes in the broader culture?

 

26. How did the new dances precipitate changes in the relations between men and women (both married and unmarried)?

 

27. Other than the fact that they were good dancers, what explains why Vernon and Irene Castle became so popular among audiences in the 1910s?  What about them proved so attractive to so many?

 

28. What strategies did the Castles pursue to make dancing the new dances “refined” and “acceptable” to middle class men and women?

 

29. Why did many observers consider Irene Castle the embodiment of the “New Woman”?

 

30. Why does the author consider the image of the “New Woman” as somewhat contradictory or paradoxical?  What elements were in tension?

 

31. How did the new popular culture transform the personal lives of those who took part in it?  What did it not transform?

 

32. From what you have read in these chapters, would you say that popular culture “trickled down” from the top or “bubbled up” from the bottom?  To what extent did the emerging popular culture blur racial, class, and gender divisions?  Did it create new divisions?