Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917

In his career as a psychologist, Granville Stanley Hall had a particular interest in developmental and educational psychology as it pertained to the possibility of positively influencing the trajectory of the lives of young men. Like many of his contemporaries, Hall believed the effects of civilization—that is, of living in a civilized society—presented demands and stressors that had the potential to take a heavy toll on the lives of men in their pursuit of occupations outside the home. Hall felt that men were becoming too comfortable and effeminate, which was propelling them toward neurasthenia and preventing them from reaching their full racial potential. Civilization, in his mind, was a threat and a detriment to healthy, virile manhood. Hall believed if boys and young men were allowed to explore and embrace their primitive and barbaric side as children, they would grow into men who could exhibit the self-control required to maintain their masculinity as adults. He encouraged teachers to allow their male students to act upon their more primitive, savage instincts and not to overburden them with the rigors of academia, lest those instincts be squashed and young men left unable to prepare themselves for adulthood.