Female Adolescence in American Scientific Thought, 1830--1930 (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History)

343 Pages·2007·1.34 MB·English

by  Crista DeLuzio

Female Adolescence in
American Scientific Thought,
1830–1930
new studies in american intellectual
and cultural history
Howard Brick, Series Editor
Female Adolescence in American
Scientific Thought, 1830–1930
crista deluzio
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
∫ 2007 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeLuzio, Crista, 1966–
Female adolescence in American scientific thought, 1830–1930 /
Crista DeLuzio.
p. cm. — (New studies in American intellectual and cultural history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8018-8699-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8018-8699-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Teenage girls—United States—History—19th century. 2. Teenage
girls—United States—History—20th century. 3. Research—United
States—History—19th century. 4. Research—United States—History—
20th century. I. Title.
hq798.d3976 2007
305.235%209730904—dc22 2006103116
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 ‘‘Laws of Life’’: Developing Youth in Antebellum America 9
2 ‘‘Persistence’’ versus ‘‘Periodicity’’:
From Puberty to Adolescence in the Late-Nineteenth-Century
Debate over Coeducation 50
3 From ‘‘Budding Girl’’ to ‘‘Flapper Americana Novissima’’:
G. Stanley Hall’s Psychology of Female Adolescence 90
4 ‘‘New Girls for Old’’: Psychology Constructs the Normal Adolescent Girl 133
5 Adolescent Girlhood Comes of Age?
The Emergence of the Culture Concept in American Anthropology 196
Epilogue 236
Notes 255
Essay on Sources 305
Index 323
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Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure and a privilege, at long last, to thank those who have guided
and supported me in writing this book.
I began this project while I was a graduate student in the Department of
American Civilization at Brown University, and I am grateful to my advisors for
the assistance they provided in its initial stages. I thank Richard Meckel for
encouraging my interest in the history of childhood early on in my graduate
career and for sharing with me his breadth and depth of knowledge in the field. I
have benefited over the years from his hard questions and high standards. I so
appreciate that these have always been advanced with such patience and good
will. Mari Jo Buhle’s work in women’s and intellectual history has been an in-
spiration. Her thorough readings of and insightful comments on my work con-
tinually prodded me toward more careful analysis and greater intellectual risk.
The words of encouragement she o√ered as this project moved along meant more
than she is ever likely to know. Susan Smulyan’s insistence on clear, precise
thinking and writing were helpful at the outset and at all stages of revising that
followed. I am grateful, too, for her attention to my professional development and
for modeling so beautifully the ideal of the teacher-student relationship. At
Brown, I also benefited from the suggestions and encouragement of the members
of my dissertation group. My warmest thanks to Dan Cavicchi, Kathy Franz,
Joanne Melish, Janice Okoomian, Kristen Peterson Farmelant, Miriam Reumann,
and Mari Yoshihara. I am also grateful to the American Association of University
Women Educational Foundation for the fellowship that supported my research
and writing during the dissertation phase.
My colleagues in the William P. Clements Department of History at Southern
Methodist University provided invaluable guidance as I revised the manuscript
for publication. I thank them for the examples of excellence in teaching and
scholarship they o√er through their own work and for the many ways they assist
me as I strive to meet that same standard. With the most sincere appreciation, I
viii acknowledgments
thank Jeremy Adams, Peter Bakewell, John Chavez, Dennis Cordell, Edward
Countryman, Melissa Dowling, Kenneth Hamilton, Benjamin Johnson, Thomas
Knock, Glenn Linden, Alexis McCrossen, John Mears, Donald Niewyk, Daniel
Orlovosky, Sherry Smith, David Weber, Kathleen Wellman, and Hal Williams. I
am particularly grateful to Department Chair James Hopkins, whose exemplary
mix of professionalism and kindness has gone a long way in enhancing my expe-
rience as a junior faculty member here. I am also thankful to Mildred Pinkston
and Julie Stewart for the consistently e≈cient and cheerful assistance they pro-
vide as I carry out my daily academic duties.
Other colleagues at SMU also make this a stimulating and congenial place to
work every day. My thanks to Suzanne Bost, Mark Chancy, David Doyle, Adam
Herring, Valerie Hunt, Bruce Levy, Beth Newman, Pamela Patton, Carolyn
Sargent, Nina Schwartz, and Rajani Sudan. I am grateful for the encourage-
ment of my work from former SMU colleagues James Breeden, Deborah Cohen,
Olga Dror, Michelle Nickerson, Michael Provence, Sarah Schneewind, and Trysh
Travis. Billie Stovall in the SMU Interlibrary Loan o≈ce deserves my special
thanks for her hard work in responding to my many requests for sources.
At the Johns Hopkins University Press, I am grateful to editor Robert J.
Brugger for his initial interest in the project and for his diligent commitment to it
as he shepherded it through to publication. I also thank Dorothy Ross and an
anonymous reader for the many useful suggestions they o√ered for revision.
Andre Barnett’s careful copyediting greatly improved the final version of the
manuscript.
Many family members and friends cheered me on with enthusiasm and helped
me to keep things in perspective. My thanks to Paula and Kevin Appel, all the
Burkes, David Criasia, John Crisafulli, Nancy DeLuzio, Tamara DeLuzio, Ros-
anne and Ralph Francesconi, Cara Harding, Karen Kinsella, Annette and Lee
Packard, and Jeanne and Dick Valorie. Tina Nappi continues to remind me
through her own remarkable example of the joys to be found in a life well lived
and a job well done. I thank my brother, Mark DeLuzio, for his gifts of music and
countless other inspirations. My sister, Maria DeLuzio, has championed my
e√orts for as long as I can remember. I am deeply grateful for all of the ways in
which she puts her extraordinary generosity of spirit to the task of easing my
worries and embellishing my small victories. My heart is full of thanks for my
husband Bob Burke, without whose unwavering confidence and practical sup-
port this project would not have been completed. My son Aidan Burke’s arrival as
I was revising the manuscript rekindled my fascination with developmental
thought in the past and present and has also opened up many new and wondrous
acknowledgments ix
horizons for thinking and feeling in my life and work. My oldest and deepest debt
of gratitude is owed to my parents, Jean and Reno DeLuzio. It is impossible to
thank them adequately for all that they have done for me. I hope they will
recognize the lessons they taught me about hard work and leaps of faith that are
written on every page.