Histories of masculinity have documented changes in the definition of American masculinity across centuries, but not decades. This article examines prescriptive and proscriptive statements about men's behavior as they appeared in William Randolph Hearst's American Weekly during the interwar period (1918–1940). Written by professionals and providing summaries of current research, the American Weekly provided authoritative accounts of masculinity to a mass audience. In the early 1920s, reason was explicitly masculine and central to the construction of masculinity, and gender differences were routinely attributed to men's superior evolution. By the late 1930s, reason was implicitly masculine, the breadwinner role was central, and gender differences relied on the known, but unstated, superiority of men.
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2.
AllenF. (1986). Since yesterday: The 1930s in America, September 3, 1929 — September 3, 1939. New York: Harper Perennial. (riginal work published 1940).
3.
BallouW. H. (1918, 6/2). Science explains the Prussian ferocity in wars. American Weekly.
4.
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6.
BuhleM. J. (1998). Feminism and its discontent: A century of struggle with psychoanalysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7.
DrakeC. A. (1938a, 1/2). Have you enough tact for success?American Weekly (Chicago).
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DrakeC. A. (1938b, 1/23). How to think clearly. American Weekly (Chicago).
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10.
FassP. S. (1977). The damned and the beautiful: American youth in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press.
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HaneyJ. A. (1953). A history of the nationally syndicated Sunday magazine supplements. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri, Columbia, 1953). Dissertation Abstracts International, 13, 1179.
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HarrisB. (2001, April). Psychological knowledge in the Hearst Press, 1920–1938. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Los Angeles, CA.
13.
HermanE. (1995). The romance of American psychology: Political culture in the age of experts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
14.
HoopingarnerN. L. (1938, 9/11). Rather die than wear a scar. American Weekly.
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JohnsonI. (1940, 1/14). Do you know how to relax?American Weekly.
16.
KennedyD. M. (1999). Freedom from fear: The American people in depression and war, 1929–1945. New York: Oxford.
17.
KimmelM. (1996). Manhood in America: A cultural history. New York: The Free Press.
18.
Ladd-TaylorM. (1986). Raising a baby the government way: Mothers' letters to the Children's Bureau, 1915–1932. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers.
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LairdD. A. (1933). Why most people behave like a flock of sheep. American Weekly.
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LairdD. A. (1935a, 2/3). What is happiness? Nobody aggress. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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LairdD. A. (1935b, 5/26). Foolish fears that torment you. American Weekly (Chicago).
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LairdD. A. (1935c, 7/21). Why women still are “crazy about” Valentino. American Weekly (Chicago).
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LairdD. A. (1936a, 6/21). Why many women try to look and act like men. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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LairdD. A. (1936b, 3/15). Why actors and actresses are unhappy husbands and wives. American Weekly (Chicago).
25.
LairdD. A. (1936c, 5/10). Science explains summer vacation romances. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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LairdD. A. (1936d, 10/4). Why “Boy-Crazy” girls do such silly things. American Weekly (Chicago).
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LairdD. A. (1936e, 9/6). Why gentle women become ferocious tigresses. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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LairdD. A. (1936f, 2/16). Don't marry a peppy girl. Don't fall in love at first sight. American Weekly (Chicago).
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LairdD. A. (1937a, 4/18). Things that touch off the crazy streak in people. American Weekly (Milwaukee), pp. 4.
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LairdD. A. (1937b, 3/7). What to do if you meet a lunatic. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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LairdD. A. (1946) Current biography, 1946.
32.
LeeA. M. (1973). The daily newspaper in America: The evolution of a social instrument. New York: Octagon Books. (riginal work published 1937).
33.
LewinM. (1984). “Rather worse than folly?” Psychology measures femininity and masculinity, 1. In LewinM. (Ed.), In the shadow of the past: Psychology portrays the sexes (pp. 155–178). New York: Columbia University Press.
34.
LyndR. S., & LyndH. M. (1929; reprint 1959). Middletown: A study in modern American culture. New York: Harcourt.
35.
MorawskiJ. G. (1984). Not quite new worlds: Psychologists' conceptions of the ideal family in the twenties. In LewinM. (Ed.), In the shadow of the past: Psychology portrays the sexes (pp. 97–125). New York: Columbia University Press.
36.
MorawskiJ. G. (1985). The measurement of masculinity and femininity: Engendering categorical realities. Journal of Personality, 53, 196–223.
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NascherI. L. (1921a, 4/3). Why scandals are so common among the very rich. American Weekly.
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NascherI. L. (1921b, 9/18). Science explains why rich heiresses marry poor but “horsey” men. American Weekly.
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NascherI. L. (1921c, 11/20). Why wealthy, fashionable girls “disappear.”American Weekly.
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NascherI. L. (1924, 9/21). Why tramps won't work. American Weekly.
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NascherI. L. (1944). The aging mind. Medical Record, 157, 669–671.
42.
ParrishM.E. (1992). Anxious decades: American in prosperity and depression, 1920–1941. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
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PendergastT. (2000). Creating the modern man: American magazines and consumer culture 1900–1950. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
44.
PopenoeP. (1940, 3/31). Your chance for a happy marriage. American Weekly.
45.
PleckJ. H. (1987). The theory of male sex-role identity: Its rise and fall, 1936 to the present. In BrodH. (Ed.), The making of masculinities: The new men's studies (pp. 21–38). Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin.
46.
RosenbergR. (1982). Beyond separate spheres: Intellectual roots of modern feminism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
47.
RotundoE. A. (1993). American manhood: Transformations in masculinity from the revolution to the modern era. New York: Basic Books.
48.
ShawC. G. (1923, 5/6). Why empty-headed Dorothy King fascinated Mr. Mitchell. American Weekly.
49.
StearnsP. N. (1994). American cool: Constructing a twentieth-century emotional style. New York: New York University Press.
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StrongE. K. J. (1936). Interests of men and women. Journal of Social Psychology, 7, 49–67.
51.
TermanL. M., & MilesC. C. (1936). Sex and personality: Studies in masculinity and femininity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
52.
TownsendK. (1996). Manhood at Harvard: William James and others. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
53.
uncredited. (1919a, 2/9). To keep “educated fools” out of college. American Weekly.
54.
uncredited. (1919b, 3/9). How they tested the skill or stupidity of our soldiers. American Weekly.
55.
uncredited. (1919c, 11/13). Why apes are probably the only animals that can think. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1920a, 8/1). Science explains why ‘getting mad’ is a good thing for us. American Weekly.
57.
uncredited. (1920b, 3/7). Science and your baby's likes and dislikes. American Weekly.
58.
uncredited. (1921a, 2/27). Should the hopelessly insane be put to death?American Weekly.
59.
uncredited. (1921b, 7/24). How science could produce perfect men and women. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1921c, 1/30). Caught! A pyromaniac. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1922a, 1/18). Can science determine your baby's career before it can talk?American Weekly (Chicago).
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uncredited. (1922b, 8/27). New light on why Prima Donnas behave so outrageously. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1922c, 4/9). Why you have impulses you are ashamed of. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1922d, November). Astonishing confessions of a bogus nobleman. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1923, October). How a thump on his head cured his insanity. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1933a, 9/17). Admit you're licked — don't try to be successful. American Weekly (Chicago).
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uncredited. (1933b, 5/28). Ambition the curse not the boon of mankind. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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uncredited. (1933c, 6/25). Are you more nervous than you ought to be?American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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uncredited. (1934a, 10/21). How long does an emotion last. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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uncredited. (1934b, 3/18). What dancing reveals about your child. American Weekly.
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uncredited. (1934c, 10/7). The 7 points that make personality. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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uncredited. (1936, 4/5). Why iron fisted dictators are glorified. American Weekly (Chicago).
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uncredited. (1937, 11/21). A smile school to teach you to be happy. American Weekly (Milwaukee).
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uncredited. (1938, 4/3). No such thing as love at first sight. American Weekly (Chicago).
75.
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