Howard Chudacof. The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. x + 341 pp. $60.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-691-02796-8.
Reviewed by Timothy Mahoney
Published on H-Urban (December, 2000)
A Bachelor's World specifc social historical contexts that may have The appearance of Howard Chudacof's im‐ afected how men at diferent times and places portant book, The Age of the Bachelor: Creating may have understood themselves as gendered be‐ an American Subculture, signals a coming of age ings.[1] Manhood, manliness, or masculinity were for gender history and men's history in the United used as roughly interchangeable terms that States. Until the mid-1980s, most historians con‐ seemed to apply in an ahistorical manner to most sidered men as non-gendered historical beings American men no matter who they were or when whose behavior and actions were explained by or where they lived. their character or identity, as shaped by their in‐ In time, however, historians such as Elliott J. tellect, emotions, talents, or skills, not by how they Gorn, Mark C. Carnes, and Clyde Grifen began to understood themselves as men. With a push from explore how "manhood" or "masculinity" was women's historians who deconstructed patriarchy "constructed" by men in various social and cultur‐ and masculinity, social historians began, in time, al contexts.[2] E. Anthony Rotundo, in American to study men as gendered subjects. Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from Early historians of men, however, responded the Revolution to the Modern Era, took this per‐ to feminist critiques by viewing manhood not as a spective further by hypothesizing that over the social historical construction, but rather as an course of American history, men have gradually "essence" that all male-bodied humans in all cul‐ changed their view of themselves from "commu‐ tures throughout history possessed and under‐ nal," to "self made," to "passionate" men.[3] By ex‐ stood by asking the universal question: "What amining the history of American men through does it mean to be a man?" Ranging across the ex‐ both the stages of their lives and over the course tent of American social history, initial inquiries of American social history, Rotundo's framework into the nature of manhood in past societies made it clear that the ways men understood and lacked a strong data base and tended to gloss over expressed their maleness were shaped by their H-Net Reviews upbringing as boys, the manner in which they ent groups of men, given their precise time and were socialized and acculturated as they matured place, economic, social, political, and cultural con‐ into men, and the economic, social, and cultural texts, sought to understand and position them‐ contexts in which they lived as adults. selves in society. Rotundo's insights encouraged other gender Howard Chudacof, in The Age of the Bache‐ historians to broaden the study of the male expe‐ lor, Creating an American Subculture, chose to ex‐ rience by examining the experiences and activi‐ amine a stage of life experienced by every man -- ties of diferent groups of men at more particular singleness or bachelorhood -- over the course of times and places in the American past. Historians American history. He chose to do so in a relatively examined males by their work (workers, sailors, general format. To some readers, this may seem a soldiers, and students at Harvard), their stage of step back towards a more generalized approach life, marital status, and sexuality (boys, single to history of men. Yet Chudacof grounds his anal‐ men, "sporting men," married men, gay men, even ysis so skillfully in a nuanced understanding of older men), their associations (boy scouts, frater‐ the dynamic process through which single men nity men), as well as by where they lived (urban, defned, understood, and positioned themselves suburban, rural, and western men).[4] Increasing‐ as "bachelors" near the metropolitan vortex ly men were studied as male-bodied human be‐ where a wide range of biological, demographic, ings who constructed identities through a contin‐ economic, social, and cultural forces and frame‐ ual interaction and negotiation between the size works intersected that his study literally bursts and physiology of their male bodies, their intellect with insights about how the emergence of a gen‐ and cognition, and the economic, social, political, der subculture transformed the lives of American and cultural contexts in which they lived. men and the mainstream gender system of Ameri‐ Particularly path breaking, in this regard, was can society. Gail Bederman's Manliness and Civilization: A Chudacof presents two provocative theses. Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United He argues that the emergence of the modern me‐ States, 1880-1917.[5] Bederman, viewing man‐ tropolis triggered the development of a distinctive hood as an "ideological process" through which bachelor subculture. Then he argues that the be‐ male-bodied individuals "positioned" and defned haviors, practices, attitudes, and values cultivated themselves, examined the ways American men in within this bachelor subculture eventually rede‐ the late nineteenth century reconfgured or "repo‐ fned the ideal of manhood for all men, both un‐ sitioned" themselves as men in the face of dramat‐ married and married, in twentieth-century Amer‐ ic social and economic changes that were causing ican culture. To demonstrate the frst argument, them deep anxiety and insecurity. One way Amer‐ Professor Chudacof draws from his skills as a ican white men responded to the softening of the quantitative historian to show that between 1880 Victorian ideal of manliness was to reconfgure a and 1910 the population of single men in the large stronger male identity under the rubric of mas‐ cities of America reached a number dense enough culinity. They did so not only by getting in touch to support the development of a true subculture. with the savage boy in themselves, but also by in‐ The author demonstrates that between 1880 and tensifying their view of themselves as members of 1930 there were more single men as a percentage a superior white race. Increasingly, therefore, so‐ of total population living in American cities and cial historians have been recognizing that to un‐ men were marrying at a later age, than at any derstand the history of men, they need to under‐ time before or after, until the 1990s. stand the dynamic process through which difer‐
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Cities were overwhelmed by unmarried men, This same dynamic also provided men with a a signifcant number of whom were native-born matrix of interlocking social groups, networks, white men. This phenomenon was not, as many and institutions. These enabled men to achieve have suggested, Chudacof argues, due to imbal‐ identity and self-fulfllment, with the support of anced sex ratios. A closer reading of those ratios companionship and comradery, once provided actually indicates there were plenty of women of only by marriage. As being single became more marrying age in most cities, but even where there socially and culturally acceptable and viable, a were not, such as in frontier towns, Chudacof distinctive bachelor subculture -- defned as a spe‐ rightly notes that migration and marriage are so cifc subset of the culture at large -- emerged. In intertwined that most men in most places actually time, the very existence of this subculture encour‐ marry someone from outside that place, thus aged more single men to delay getting married bringing into question any correlation between and stay single. It was the modern city, therefore, marriage rates and sex ratios. that enabled young men and women to fulfll So too, Chudacof argues against the econom‐ most of their social, psychological, sexual, and cul‐ ic viewpoint that urban life, being more expen‐ tural needs without marriage and domestic life. sive, compelled men to delay marriage in the For Chudacof's thesis to stand, he must 1890s and 1900s, by indicating the weak correla‐ demonstrate that the increase in the number of tion between wealth and marriage rates through‐ single men in the modern metropolis generated out history and the wide range of factors that af‐ new kinds of behaviors and social support as well fect a couple's decision to marry. By dispensing as new venues, businesses, and institutions cater‐ with these widely held explanations, Chudacof is ing to bachelors. Many readers might wonder, jus‐ able to correlate the increase of single men with tifably, if some of the behaviors, practices, atti‐ the emergence of the metropolis. The number of tudes, associations, and institutions he argues unmarried men increased not because men could were new did not have pre-metropolitan origins. not fnd wives, or aford marriage, but for the so‐ To allay reader's concerns, Chudacof surveys the cial and cultural reason that fewer men wanted to development of the bachelor subculture and con‐ or felt they had to get married. In what he calls frms that many of the male behaviors, attitudes, the "sociocultural explanation," Chudacof argues practices, and institutions he includes within the that the reason for this was that the emerging me‐ later subculture were present in cities and towns tropolis did not afect the life of American men by earlier in the eighteenth and early nineteenth making life materially harder and more socially centuries. Chudacof argues, however, that these isolated, but rather, that, by throwing so many were, for the most part, the temporary experi‐ single men together, it provided a population ences of a small population of bachelors who threshold of individuals who in the course of so‐ would soon marry. What was new in the Gilded cial interactions constructed a new subculture in Age metropolis was the coalescing of these behav‐ urban society. A surfeit of social "a-contextual" in‐ iors, attitudes, practices, and institutions, support‐ dividuals, relatively free of communal social con‐ ed by the rising population of single men, into a trol, interacted with each other in new ways that mature subculture that valued single life. created a vibrant singles culture in which men The social world of single men in American could acquire fulfllment and pleasure, sexual or cities between the 1880s and the 1920s was a par‐ otherwise, without the requirement and limita‐ ticular urban realm half-way between the house‐ tions of marriage. hold world of pre-industrial cities and small towns in which each individual was attached to a
3 H-Net Reviews household or family unit and "singles" living Though men have, of course, been "bonding" in alone in apartment complexes experiencing both one way or another for generations, even cen‐ the excitement and anomie of living in a large me‐ turies, the style of late nineteenth-century male tropolis today. Though many men may have want‐ bonding, amid the intense competition of the mar‐ ed to live alone, most, as Chudacof again shows ket place, drew heavily from the culture of sarcas‐ through demographic analysis, actually lived in tic joking, nicknames, posturing, teasing, verbal their parents' or siblings' homes or rented rooms jousting, practical jokes that had developed in in the household of a host family, the head of towns and cities a half a century before. Such be‐ which was often in the same profession, from the haviors reduced competitive tensions by allowing 1880s through the 1930s. It would hardly seem both strangers and friends to express emotions, that these men were living the bachelor lifestyle ideas, and attitudes indirectly. By avoiding both one tends to associate with single men in apart‐ overly maudlin expressions of emotions and de‐ ments, residential hotels, or boarding houses run fusing disputes and preventing violence, indirec‐ by a landlord or proprietor. But the fact that John tion cultivated a cool controlled masculine style, L. Sullivan, one of the most famous, if not repre‐ while defning the borders of the group and sub‐ sentative, bachelors of his day, lived at home with culture. The primary catalyst of these male-bond‐ his parents into his mid-twenties, indicates that ing behaviors, however, was collective or compet‐ residence at home and bachelor lifestyle could co‐ itive drinking accompanied by bawdy song and exist. revelry.[6] Nevertheless, recognizing that for most read‐ While men have gathered at urban taverns or ers "single life" usually refers to life in a boarding bars to drink together since ancient times, Chuda‐ house or apartment building, Chudacof takes the cof argues that the impersonality, density, and di‐ reader on a tour through the regime of boarding versity of the Gilded Age American metropolis led house life in the boarding house districts that de‐ to the development of an elaborate and intensive veloped in every major city. Inevitably boarders culture of drinking, with its concomitant eforts to formed friendships that provided the emotional "mark" the local saloon or tavern as a male club‐ support necessary for personal growth and devel‐ house and safe haven within the city. Though opment. Boarding houses, therefore, were more Chudacof leaves a more detailed exploration of than just places where men slept, ate, and occa‐ this realm to other scholars, the suggestion that sionally bathed. They were the meeting points of the Victorian saloon can be "read" as a specifcally a set of informal and formal networks that devel‐ "marked" artifact that refected the particular val‐ oped in response to the physical and social needs ues, attitudes, needs, and desires of the late-nine‐ of single men. teenth-century metropolitan bachelor subculture The saloon also served a specifc purpose and should seem evident to anyone who has entered a need within the Gilded Age metropolis. In this in‐ tavern or bar.[7] creasingly impersonal urban realm, the familiar Chudacof's general description of the Victori‐ local pub or tavern, once a relatively private an saloon, represented by the "archetypal" saloon meeting place, became increasingly a home away decor pictured on the dust jacket (though uniden‐ from home, a public "community center" (p. 114) tifed in the text or on the dust jacket, it portrays, where one became part of a surrogate family, and in fact, the famous bar in the Hotel Hofman in a homosocial, or, for some, a homosexual, net‐ New York City in which hung William Adolphe work, social group, or gang, with whom one Bouguereau's "notorious" painting Nymphs and shared companionship, good times, and intimacy. Satyr, 1873) expresses the evocative cultural pow‐
4 H-Net Reviews er of saloon decor.[8] The emergence of the style trophies, souvenirs, or proverbial notches in the or ambience of the middle to higher clientele Vic‐ belt, of sexual conquest) though, in fact, they were torian saloon is, in itself, a subject worth pursu‐ usually surrendered voluntarily by those female ing. Though the origins of the style lie in the tav‐ patrons who were willing to play along. Today erns and pubs of medieval and early modern Eng‐ this tradition manages to survive in the Coyote land and Europe, Americans, having larger scale Ugly Saloon (featured in August 2000 in the spaces, and perhaps a stronger desire to create a Touchstone Film, Coyote Ugly Saloon) and Hogs & separate gendered space, extended the length of Heifers, both in New York City. In the latter, fe‐ the bar and enhanced it with ever larger and male customers have turned the tables on this more elaborate wooden corniced mirror-backed male tradition by voluntarily leaving their bras on cabinets and shelves, on which they displayed a the "bra tree" after taking them of at or while wide range of liquor bottles. In time, both bar‐ dancing on the long bar. keeps and regular patrons would "decorate" or These erotic paraphernalia were one kind "mark" the bar "landscape" with images, memen‐ among a wide range of male symbols, tokens, me‐ tos, and paraphernalia relating to their gendered mentos, and souvenirs hung on the walls by the interests as well as with the tools of their respec‐ proprietors or clients to "mark" the saloon as a tive trades, to translate it into their "male space" "male space." Early on, hanging mounted animal (p. 113). heads, horns, or antlers became prevalent. Today Most of these practices remain standard prac‐ this practice, which possibly originated with tice from the oldest downtown bars to the newest hunters adorning their shacks or cabins with suburban and mall chain taverns, bars, or pizza antler "racks," is still ubiquitous west of the Mis‐ parlors, ribs joints, and steak houses. Amid the sissippi River and impressively maintained in his‐ displayed bottles, the tools of the bar-tending toric places such as the Buckhorn Exchange in trade are stored. Above or besides the mirrors Denver, Colorado or the Menger Bar in the and wood, various symbols of male prowess, Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Stufed ani‐ achievement, or desire were displayed. In the mal heads, however, also adorn the impressive nineteenth-century mostly male saloon, paintings bar in Old Ebbitt Grill in downtown Washington or images of nude women were ubiquitous. In to‐ D. C., one of which -- a walrus head -- was suppos‐ day's non-gender-segregated saloons and taverns, edly donated for the bar at the previous site of the these images tend to be sequestered of to the establishment by a regular, Theodore Roosevelt. side, or limited to calendars, collections of risque In addition to these, pieces of clothing, hats, postcards tacked on the wall, or more discrete weapons, job-related equipment, sporting equip‐ video games on consoles that now grace many ment, instruments, even toys, as well as newspa‐ bars. per clippings, signed photographs, old posters, One notable exception is McCormick's Fish and in some cases, even a special made plaque to House and Bar in Denver, Colorado in which a mark one patron's spot, or table, or booth, adorn large and brazen Bouguereau portrait of a group "barscapes" across the country. The toys that still of bathing female nudes hangs on the wall in the hang from the ceiling, the historic photos that bar near the door into the hall across from the grace the walls, and the plaques in the booths at restaurant entrance. Less frequently, these images New York's famed 21 Club [9]; or the yellowed and of sexual freedom or fantasy are made more con‐ dusty political paraphernalia covering the walls crete by the display of the underwear of women in McSorley's Bar [10], or the musical instruments who male patrons allegedly had been with (the displayed on the walls of the Hard Rock Cafe (a commercialized and museum-like evocation of
5 H-Net Reviews biker bar paraphernalia) continue these tradi‐ While the saloon was the central venue of this tions. Most bars would also serve as information world, it was at the center of an increasingly centers. Patrons would leave mail, their cards, or dense matrix of support "institutions" that togeth‐ sometimes even cash tacked onto message boards er, enlarged the "male space" in which single men or the walls, or messages carved into the wooden lived. Chudacof takes the reader on a fascinating bar (a famous example of this kind of decor was tour of the various other "institutions" that devel‐ Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon in Oak‐ oped in most cities, at each step of the way, inter‐ land, California in the 1890s through 1920s).[11] preting the institution as one among several that This tradition survives today at the Salty Dawg in supported and sustained a subculture with occa‐ Homer, Alaska, where the walls are covered by sional countercultural tendencies. Pool and bil‐ dollar bills on which patrons have written mes‐ liard halls ranged from elegant high stakes halls sages, and calling cards from thousands of to a table in the back of the neighborhood saloon. tourists and travelers (the reviewer's included, Barber shops were places for men to clean up and left in March 2000). indulge in male talk and comradery -- evoked to So too, many bars acquired a cache or notori‐ some extent by today's upscale men's hair cutting ety, simply because it was patronized by individu‐ salons complete with complementary liquor, als who later acquired fame, whether in real life, men's magazines, neck massages, facials, and a novel or, in our day, television. This phenome‐ manicures. Likewise, in candy stores, as well as non is continued today by the tourists who still cigar stores (evoked by the mid-1990s revival of make a pilgrimage to the bar "Cheers" on Beacon cigar stores, bars, or saloons), single men gath‐ Street in Boston. Founded in 1895, Cheers was the ered, competed, bonded, and indulged in male locale of a famous American television series, discourse, providing ideological support for the Cheers (Paramount Studios, 1982-1993). And even notion that it was fne to be a bachelor. So too, though the interior looks little like the set in the cafes, restaurants, and lunchrooms, as well as television series, one can purchase Cheers glasses, concert saloons, taxi-dance halls, theaters, public mugs, T-shirts, and other souvenirs at a gift shop, baths, and even tailor shops all provided single something which those who cannot get to Boston men with the space in which they could pursue can now do at Cheers branches in a dozen air‐ their physical and psychological needs for com‐ ports across the United States. In such ways, the panionship, meaning, and identity. "regulars" marked bars, taverns, and saloons as It was in these venues, Chudacof argues, that middle class or poor "man's clubs" within the im‐ single men in the city, in contrast to the image of personal city. In addition to being male cultural them as lonely detached a-contextual solitaries, domains, bars and taverns served more basic established meaningful relationships and connec‐ needs. The traditional free lunch served by many tions. But of course, evidence from city directories taverns foreshadowed the free hors d'oeuvres that a saloon, billiard hall, or barber shop was in served by many bars and taverns today during business for a number of years does not necessar‐ "happy hour." So too, saloons were centers for en‐ ily provide evidence about what the patrons tertainment, boxing matches, news, political activ‐ achieved socially and culturally when they were ity, and other social services. In each of these there drinking, playing, or relaxing. The evidence, ways, men, Chudacof argues, quoting from an‐ as Chudacof suggests, is buried in turn of the other historian, claimed "male space and male twentieth century diaries, daily pocket calendars, freedom" (p. 113). memo books, or the letters of single men in urban America, that record the daily interactions of men
6 H-Net Reviews as they created fctive kin and friend networks, and married men were to be pitied and scorned. and joined gangs or clubs or associations. Women, of course, had their attractions, but other Rather than pursuing this elusive evidence, than for casual dating and sex, they were to be however, Chudacof argues his thesis by drawing avoided as much as possible. This single male from theories of social and personal development creed gradually coalesced into a bachelor ideolo‐ from both contemporary and more recent socio‐ gy, the development of which Chudacof traces in logical studies of urban life. These theories argue newspapers like The National Police Gazette, as that most young urban men acquired their frst well as in the development of more ribald forms sense of identity among other males in a youth of male entertainment and pornography. In sum, gang. There a young man learned both to work Chudacof convincingly presents institutional, with others and stand up for oneself without the spatial, sociological, and cultural evidence that a aid of parents or older siblings. Men later formal‐ distinctive bachelor subculture emerged and ized these fuid associations into clubs and frater‐ fourished around the turn of the century in nal orders -- ranging from simply working-class American cities. groups to elaborate elite men's clubs. Each served On a general level, Chudacof impressively an analogous role in shaping male identity by pro‐ demonstrates his thesis. Yet the fact that in order viding companionship, sociability, connectedness, to convince the reader, Chudacof relies on ftting validation, and a confrmation of maleness. his argument within the logic of the urban theory Among one's band of brothers, one discovered of turn-of-the-twentieth-century sociologists, indi‐ self and learned what it meant to be and how to cates how much more work urban, social, and become a man. cultural historians have to do before we empiri‐ Based on this theory, Chudacof argues that cally understand the actual impact of the metrop‐ the world of the bar, tavern, billiard hall, barber olis on individuals and modern society. shop, and even tailor shop was not the isolated, Chudacof's theoretical framework is securely lonely, morally dissipated social realm that re‐ rooted in the work of Robert E. Park, Ernest W. formers feared was corrupting young men and Burgess, Harvey Zorbaugh (Professor Chudacof making them unft for the adult responsibilities of wrote an introduction for the 1976 reprint edition work and married life. Instead, men in the bache‐ of Zorbaugh's 1929 classic, The Gold Coast and the lor subculture found meaningful relationships Slum), and Louis Wirth, all members of the Chica‐ and social connections that enabled them to un‐ go School.[12] To Chudacof and most urban histo‐ derstand themselves and live satisfying lives. Chu‐ rians, the metropolis is a massive money-making dacof convincingly argues his thesis. But to machine that generated intense competition, spe‐ demonstrate it, he and other historians need to cialization, and diversity within a densely occu‐ fnd more empirical evidence that these new so‐ pied space. In doing so, it shattered the organic cial connections, a new ideology, and a new view structure of traditional society and left people of manhood actually emerged within this subcul‐ alone, and isolated, both compelled and free to ture. seek out new kinds of social and institutional in‐ Moreover, the men in this subculture gradual‐ teractions that would transform society. While ly developed a distinctive single "ideology" or members of the Chicago School of sociology saw ethos that, above all, exalted aggressive indepen‐ both the disorganizing impact and creative possi‐ dent manhood, a value rooted in boy culture. For bilities of so many people being thrown together these men, most of whom would eventually get in big cities, they tended to emphasize the nega‐ married, marriage was to be delayed or avoided tive impact -- impersonality, atomization, a-con‐
7 H-Net Reviews textualization, and disorder. They explored less havior and responses to the metropolis as a fully the countless enterprising, resilient, and cre‐ process not just a context, without relying on ative responses of people to the metropolis that Louis Wirth's "brilliantly conceived and com‐ contributed to the creation of modern metropoli‐ pellingly developed" classic model to do our ex‐ tan society and culture. Chudacof's contribution plaining for us.[14] is to show us how single men, rather than a mani‐ Chudacof's fne discussion of the develop‐ festation of disorder, were actually among the ur‐ ment and impact of the YMCA, for example, banites who responded positively and innovative‐ touches on the real complexity of the cause and ly to city life. They created new social bonds, asso‐ efect dynamics between individuals, institutions, ciations, services, and institutions out of which and city life. The "Ys" were founded to counteract developed a viable subculture that provided the the social isolation that was making single men social support many felt only the family or close- unft for a moral and responsible adult life. Yet, in knit community could once have provided. providing all the services single men needed, the Yet how this happened precisely eludes social YMCA ironically supported the single lifestyle. historians. One is left wondering exactly how in‐ Nor is it really clear if such institutions were a re‐ dividuals in the real world -- outside of an aca‐ sponse to a specifc sociological demand, or if they demic model -- experienced urbanization and simply had enough customers in most cities to how their experiences afected social attitudes, thrive. Chudacof notes the further irony that ear‐ behavior, and order. Though Chudacof rightly ly on, the YMCA became associated with a homo‐ notes that trying to quantify if people had fewer sexual subculture. YMCAs became known as cen‐ or more social contacts, acquaintances, friends, or ters of gay life and seem, by inference, to have if they drank, gambled, and frittered away their been used more by gay than straight men. It income on entertainment more or less, or if they seems that the YMCA provided services that most committed more crimes, or indulged more in ca‐ straight men found more than adequately provid‐ sual sex or prostitution -- are all extremely dif‐ ed by the web of institutions Chudacof described. cult to demonstrate, it seems a door of inquiry That single men chose not to use the "Y" very that many social and cultural historians would much, seems to indicate that single life was not beneft from going through. We simply do not the isolating, atomizing, a-contextual experience know very much empirically about whether or that the YMCA administrators assumed it was. how cities, in fact, loosened social ties and afect‐ Not so for gay men. Though gay men had cul‐ ed behavior. Nor do we really understand how tivated their own subculture within the taverns, population density, by creating a threshold of peo‐ bars, theaters, and dance halls that served as ple who behaved in certain ways within the same venues for the bachelor or "sporting male" subcul‐ place, increased the visibility, if not the actual nu‐ ture, the space of straight single life was still merical frequency, of certain behaviors associated alienating. As a culture pervaded by the hetero‐ with urban life.[13] sexual ribaldry, fantasy, entertainment, and be‐ In addition, we have only begun to analyze havior that created bonds among straight men, how people experienced metropolitan produc‐ men bonded and reconfrmed their heterosexuali‐ tion, management, and marketing bureaucracies, ty by directing their attention, gaze, discourse, and how, in responding to city life, people began and actions toward women -- gay men were still to construct a freer, more tolerant, and diverse required to dissimulate, making it problematic for modern society. In short, urban historians need to gay men to meet and relax. Though most straight study a wider range of individual and group be‐ men were just tolerant enough to look the other
8 H-Net Reviews way, many remained less than receptive, and li‐ tivist, and individualist image of masculinity. Chu‐ able, at any time, to indulge in gay bashing. In the dacof argues that this image of masculinity pro‐ YMCA, gay men found the institutional support foundly afected the broader cultural construction that they could not fnd as easily within the bach‐ of manhood in American society in the twentieth elor subculture. In short, the YMCA's goals turned century. out to be more relevant to gay rather than straight Though Chudacof only has room to sketch his men. And once a threshold of gay men gathered at argument in broad strokes, the lay of those the YMCAs, the interactions and connections they strokes across the canvass of twentieth-century made fostered the emergence of a gay subculture. America will ring true so often with most reader's As an analogy for the impact of the city on bache‐ knowledge or past or contemporary experiences, lors, the YMCA did not create gay subculture, that it seems certainly plausible. Twentieth- and rather it created a space where a greater number twenty-frst century American men do assert of people sharing subcultural values and behavior themselves and compete at the ofce, at home, could achieve a threshold of numbers that en‐ and in play. Competitive sports are a signifcant abled that subculture to fourish institutionally, aspect of many men's lives and defne how they socially, and culturally, though still much more understand themselves and others. American underground than in more recent times. men have admired, glorifed, and lived fantasy The "bachelor subculture," as a creative re‐ lives through sports fgures from John L. Sullivan sponse to the metropolis, served as a model for (bare knuckle and linear heavyweight boxing other men who felt they needed to respond to the champion, 1882-92), to Babe Ruth, Muhammed over-civilized and feminized culture in which Ali, Michael Jordan, and, in the year 2000, Tiger they lived. As mainstream men responded by Woods. And they did elevate popular or public fg‐ seeking to reassert their manhood in new ways ures from Theodore Roosevelt, to Frank Sinatra, "to meet the challenges society" presented them, to John F. Kennedy to the status of public gender they drew deeply from the well of the bachelor heroes more so than men in other cultures. subculture and "boy culture." Lacking the outlet As American men and women after World of war until 1917, mainstream men vented their War II set in motion a marriage and baby boom, frustrations and satisfed their need for self-asser‐ at the core of which was a sexual revolution, mar‐ tion and competition in strenuous activities such ried men did respond to and follow a resurgence as exercise and sports. "New men" engaged in of the bachelor subculture in the 1950s. Chudacof competitive sports, enhanced their personal ap‐ focuses on the role played by Hugh Hefner's artic‐ pearance through exercise, grooming, and dress, ulating and living a "playboy philosophy." Howev‐ initiated more aggressive dating behavior, drank er, Hefner was just a part of a larger cultural with other men, chewed tobacco, smoked cigars, resurgence of the bachelor lifestyle as cultivated swore, and gambled. "Manly action" was increas‐ by the "Rat Pack" and nightclub culture that devel‐ ingly seen as rooted in boyish self-expression. oped in New York, Atlantic City, Miami, and Las This impression was reinforced around 1900 by Vegas. Though, at one time or another, Frank the penchant among contemporary political car‐ Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Sammy toonists to portray men with their adult heads on Davis Jr. were family men, by presenting them‐ boyish bodies -- a favorite way to portray selves as swinging bachelors and "boys at play," Theodore Roosevelt. In an increasingly feminized they brought the bachelor ethos into mainstream and over-civilized society, to be a man meant act‐ culture and even into the White House in the ear‐ ing like a boy, cultivating a "boys will be boys" at‐ ly 1960s. Chudacof, of course, does not have the titude and yet a bold, ambitious, self-assertive, ac‐
9 H-Net Reviews time to explore the nuances of the convergence of versity Press, 1986); Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual Rat Pack culture with Rock n' Roll and youth and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven: countercultural rebellion of the 1960s, but both, Yale University Press, 1989); Mark C. Carnes and running on parallel tracks, with Frank Sinatra al‐ Clyde Grifen, eds., Meanings For Manhood: Con‐ ways trying to navigate back and forth, cultivated structions of Masculinity in Victorian America the swinging singles life style that surged through (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). American culture and society as both a response [3]. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood: to and cause of the marriage and baby bust of the Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolu‐ 1970s. Though it seems far fetched to suggest that tion to the Modern Era (New York: Basic Books, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Beach Boys in 1993) music, and Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman, [4]. See: Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic, Robert Redford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gib‐ New York City and the Rise of the American Work‐ son, and Bruce Willis in flm all drank from the ing Class (New York: Oxford, 1984), 300-301; same cultural trough of the bachelor subculture Robert H. Wiebe, "Lincoln's Fraternal Democracy," early in the century that portrayed most modern in John L. Thomas, ed., Abraham Lincoln and the public men as single men, the prevalent "single‐ American Political Tradition (Amherst: University ness" of each of their public personas gives plausi‐ of Massachusetts Press, 1986); Elliot J. Gorn, bility to Chudacof's thesis. "'Good-Bye Boys, I Die a True American': Homi‐ Today there are more single men and single cide, Nativism, and Working-Class Culture in An‐ women in the United States than at any time in its tebellum New York City," Journal of American His‐ history. Straight men today, responding in various tory 74 (1987): 388-410; Timothy Gilfoyle, City of ways to social liberalism, feminism, and gay Eros, New York City, Prostitution, and the Com‐ rights, seem confused or searching yet again for mercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 (New York: W. what it means to "be a man." The extent to which W.Norton, 1992), 81-84, 92-116; Patricia Cline Co‐ their responses rely on the values, attitudes, and hen, "Unregulated Youth: Masculinity and Murder behaviors of the bachelor subculture of a century in the 1830s City," Radical History Review 52 ago convinces the reader that even if Professor (1992): 33-52; George Chauncey, Gay New York: Chudacof cannot explain the status of manhood Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay in contemporary America (a task best left to cul‐ Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, tural critics, journalists, sociologists, and future 1994), 76-81; Timothy Gilfoyle, "The Hearts of historians), he has succeeded in placing today's ef‐ Nineteenth-Century Men: Bigamy and Working forts to do so within an historical context that ClassMarriage in New York City, 1800-1890," helps us understand the roots of contemporary Prospects 19 (1994): 135-60; Michael Kaplan, "New behavior and discourse. The Age of the Bachelor, York City Tavern Violence and the Creation of a Creating an American Subculture is imaginative Working-Class Identity," Journal of the Early Re‐ social history that convincingly explains the past public 15 (Winter 1995): 591-617; Amy Gilman in a way that gives deeper meaning to the present. Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Notes Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York [1]. See Peter N. Stearns. Be A Man!: Males in (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 51-58; Modern Society (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979; Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural second ed. 1990). History (New York: The Free Press, 1996); Kim Townsend, Manhood at Harvard: William James [2]. Elliott J. Gorn, The Manly Art: Bare-knuck‐ and Others (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996); le Prize Fighting in America (Ithaca: Cornell Uni‐
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Katherine Snyder, "A Paradise of Bachelors: Re‐ [13]. For an exploration how individuals modeling Domesticity and Masculinity in the "coped" with metropolitan life, see Perry R. Duis, Turn-of-the-Century New York Bachelor Apart‐ Challenging Chicago, Coping With Everyday Life, ment," Prospects 23 (1998): 247-84. 1837-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, [5].Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civiliza‐ 1998). tion: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the [14]. Anthony Orum, "Louis Wirth," in Neil United States, 1880-1917 (Chicago: University of Larry Shumsky, ed., Encyclopedia of Urban Ameri‐ Chicago Press, 1995). ca, The Cities and Suburbs, Volume 2, M-Z (Santa [6].Timothy R. Mahoney, "'A Common Band of Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998), 881. Brotherhood': The Booster Ethos, Male Subcul‐ Copyright (c) 2001 by H-Net, all rights re‐ tures, and the Origins of Urban Social Order in the served. This work may be copied for non-proft Midwest of the 1840s," Journal of Urban History educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ 25 (July 1999): 619-46. thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ [7]. Elliot West, The Saloon on the Rocky tact [email protected]. Mountain Mining Frontier (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979); Perry R. Duis, The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983); Made‐ lon Powers, Faces Along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998). [8]. M. Christine Boyer, Manhattan Manners, Architecture and Style, 1850-1900 (New York: Riz‐ zoli, 1985), 58. [9]. See H. Peter Kriendler and H. Paul Jefers, 21: Every Day Was New Year's Eve: Memoirs of a Saloon Keeper (New York: Taylor Publishers, 1999) [10]. See photograph of John Sloan's painting, "McSorley's Bar," (1912) in photograph inset in Madelon Powers, Faces Along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920. [11]. See photograph inset in Madelon Pow‐ ers, Faces Along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920. [12]. Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Men‐ tal Life," 1903; and Louis Wirth "Urbanism as a Way of Life," 1938, in Philip Kasinitz, ed. Metropo‐ lis: Center and Symbol of Our Times (New York: New York University Press, 1995); Harvey Zor‐ baugh, The Gold Coast and the Slum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929, reprint 1976).
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Citation: Timothy Mahoney. Review of Chudacof, Howard. The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. December, 2000.
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