Changes in leisure activities, 1890-1940.Interpretations of what makes twentieth-century American life "modern" occasionally treat changes in how Americans spend their leisure time. This paper addresses three common claims about the modernization of leisure, that: (1) organized pastimes replaced informal and spontaneous recreation; (2) commercial entertainment, especially spectacles such as movies and professional sports The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , replaced self-generated and active leisure; and (3) private diversions replaced collective recreation. These propositions are not necessarily consistent; the first and third are in tension. Also, depending on the author, the timing of these changes varies. But the three propositions summarize many assertions about how modernization changed Americans' use of free time. I examine recreational activities between 1890 and 1940, the period when (a) leisure time expanded,(1) and (b) major new technologies for leisure first emerged and won acceptance by the middle-class: bicycles, streetcars, automobiles, telephones, movies, radio, and so forth. (The major omission is, of course, the rise of television after mid-century.) I use evidence explicitly gathered to trace the evolution of leisure activities in three communities in northern California--Palo Alto, Antioch, and San Rafael San Rafael (săn rəfĕl`), residential city (1990 pop. 48,404), seat of Marin co., W Calif., a suburb of San Francisco on the northern shore of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1913. . The study eventually turns to the broader assumption in many modernization arguments that the "traditional" has been displaced by the "modern." The three propositions above are abstracted from various essays on American social change. As experts on leisure have noted, discussions of its historical transformations tend to be scattered and unsystematic.(2) Nevertheless, in general histories, as well as in specific essays on leisure, these three themes appear. The development of organization over spontaneity is asserted, to illustrate, when observers rue the institution of Little League baseball. Lewis Atherton, to take a concrete study, explicitly blames the rise of organized lodges and clubs for shredding small town cohesion in the late 19th century. Generally, applications of the sociological model of "mass society" imply an increasing regimentation and top-down direction to social activities.(3) Second, many analysts describe a "commodification Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, or, in other words, to assign value. As the word commodity has distinct meanings in business and in Marxist theory, commodification " of leisure: the ascendancy of commercial recreation, such as vaudeville vaudeville (vôd`vĭl), originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. , movies, and professional sports over free pastimes, and indulgence in blatant consumerism, such as department-store shopping, over more "authentic" pursuits. Commodification was certainly a concern of Robert and Helen Lynd Helen Merrel Lynd (March 17, 1896 - January 30, 1982) was a U.S. sociologist and social philosopher. Author of Shame and the Search for Identity and co-author of Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture with husband Robert Staughton Lynd. , in Middletown and elsewhere, of critics such as Eric Fromm For the philosopher, see . Eric Fromm (born June 27, 1958 in Queens, New York) is a former tennis player from the United States. Perhaps Eric's best result was reaching the Quarterfinals of the French Open in 1983 where he eventually lost to Jimmy Connors. and philosopher Albert Borgmann Albert Borgmann (born 1937) is an American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana. .(4) Gunther Barth depicts such commercial recreations as the defining institutions of the emerging modern city during the nineteenth century.(5) Alan Trachtenberg Alan Trachtenberg is Neil Gray, Jr. Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. goes farther, writing that new forms of "vicarious vicarious /vi·car·i·ous/ (vi-kar´e-us) 1. acting in the place of another or of something else. 2. occurring at an abnormal site. vi·car·i·ous adj. 1. experience," mass-spectator sports being a key example, "began to erode direct physical experience of the world."(6) Third, many have been concerned about "privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned ." Although most commentators fix on the post-World War II era of suburban tract homes and television, the trends they describe as a retreat from public life to the private hearth supposedly began much earlier. In place of leisure spent in the streets, plazas, markets, and cafes, people turned inward, spending time "Spending Time" is the first single released by Christian artist Stellar Kart. The lyrics describe the band members desire to spend "more time with God". "Sometimes it’s a real struggle to spend time with God. with family and closed circles of friends.(7) Other scholars have, however, described a more complex story than the ones abstracted here. Blake McKelvey, for example, suggests that commercial leisure expanded in the late nineteenth century but contracted during the twentieth in favor of private leisure.(8) Steven Reiss claims that urban growth deprived working-class people of opportunities for sports in the late nineteenth century, but that various reform movements expanded those opportunities in the twentieth.(9) Some critics have questioned or qualified the entire "consumerism" argument.(10) These analyses challenge the simpler modernization models forwarded by others and addressed in this paper. Unfortunately, the practical limitations of this particular study do not permit us to empirically explore the more subtle chronologies. I focus on the three basic arguments, examining them in light of the experience of three California towns. Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , 35 miles south of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , was founded in 1891 to serve Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. as a totally "dry" commercial center. It then developed quickly as well into a railroad suburb of San Francisco. It continued to be an affluent enclave of Progressive Republicanism throughout the period, reaching a population of 16,000 in 1940. Antioch, 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, was a small, agriculturally-based town of about 600 people in 1890. It reached a population of 5,000 in 1940. In the intervening years, increasing numbers of Antioch's workers, many of them immigrants from Italy and the Dust Bowl, labored in heavy industry and agricultural processing. Throughout the period, Antiochians were poorer than the residents of the other two towns. San Rafael, 15 miles north of San Francisco, had a more complex socioeconomic profile. It was a railroad suburb of "The City," a commercial center for Marin County, and a small industrial center of its own. It grew from about 3,300 in 1890 to 8,600 fifty years later.(11) To track leisure activities in these towns, I use evidence of three types: narrative accounts of the towns' histories drawn from published sources such as newspapers and memoirs, recollections of over 30 elderly residents whom we interviewed, and most fully, counts of leisure activities coded from the town newspapers.(12) Recreation in America Recreation changed dramatically between 1890 and 1940 as Americans embraced new leisure technologies. Nickelodeons appeared and then were replaced by movies. In 1920, theaters sold forty million tickets a week and ten years later over twice as many. Film-going grew at the expense, some have speculated, of vaudeville and the saloon.(13) Radio appeared in the 1920s. A San Francisco newspaper welcomed it by announcing: "There is radio music in the air, every night, everywhere. Any body can hear it at home. . . ." By 1930, 40 percent of American households could listen to one or more of hundreds of stations; a decade later, 80 percent could.(14) By 1938, movie-going and radio-listening had become among Americans' favorite pastimes.(15) In the 1890s, many Americans toured the countryside on bicycle. By the 1920s, far more were touring by automobile. The number of cars entering national parks This is a list of national parks ordered by nation. Africa
More Americans enjoyed sports, both as spectators and as participants. Major League Baseball's attendance expanded from 3.6 million to over nine million between 1900 and 1920. Estimates are that softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' playing increased even more rapidly. Similarly, the number of registered bowlers grew from seven to 219 thousand between 1910 and 1930. Other pastimes waxed and waned. Dance halls, for example, flourished in the early part of the century and then declined in popularity.(17) Beginning in the 1880s, membership in fraternal and civic clubs grew rapidly. In the early 1930s, Lloyd Warner found that over 40 percent of Newburyport, Massachusetts , residents belonged to one or more of 357 associations. Simultaneously, George Lundberg George Lundberg can refer to:
New technologies may have been indirectly implicated im·pli·cate tr.v. im·pli·cat·ed, im·pli·cat·ing, im·pli·cates 1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot. 2. in some of these changing social activities. People used telephones and automobiles to organize their leisure time more easily than before. Studying rural villages during the 1920s, Brunner and Kolb found growth in community centers, crafts classes, and hobby groups such as little theaters. They partly credited both radio--for widening listeners' horizons--and the automobile for the changes.(19) As noted, a host of interpretations has been offered about how these organized pastimes replaced informal, spontaneous, active and collective recreation. The key phrase here is "replaced." Much of the modernization literature alludes to the displacement or substitution of "modern" forms for "traditional" ones, of Gesellschaft for Gemeinschaft. In the realm of leisure, it is common for writers to describe new forms, say, attendance at professional sports, as displacing "premodern pre·mod·ern adj. Existing or coming before a modern period or time: the feudal system of premodern Japan. " forms. John Clark John Clark is the name of:
Leisure Activities in Three Towns How did leisure change for the residents of Antioch, Palo Alto, and San Rafael? Newspaper stories, memoirs, and oral histories help describe leisure patterns between 1890 and 1940. I devote special attention to club life, which was vibrant. For the oral histories, we interviewed 14 elderly people in Palo Alto, 10 in San Rafael, and 11 in Antioch about community life and technological change which they could recall from their childhoods and young adulthoods growing up in or near those towns.(23) Almost all were native-born Anglos and most were of middle-class origin. Their birth dates ranged from 1888 to 1917 and their recollections largely focussed on the years after 1910. Thus, the interviews mainly covered the recreational life of middle-class teenagers and young adults in the interwar interwar Adjective of or happening in the period between World War I and World War II era. As a major part of the interviews, we asked the respondents to tell us about social life in the town, what there was to do, and to describe what they and their families did in their spare time. We did not go through a check-list of leisure activities, so there were probably many pursuits individual respondents engaged in which they did not tell us about; we assume that the ones they mentioned were the most important to them. Silence about an activity--say, dinners with friends--does not imply that it did not occur.(24) Palo Alto. Leisure activities were best documented in Palo Alto.(25) Informal and unscheduled unscheduled Adjective not planned or intended Adj. 1. unscheduled - not scheduled or not on a regular schedule; "an unscheduled meeting"; "the plane made an unscheduled stop at Gander for refueling" activities dominated free time there, as elsewhere. Our oldest interviewees, a few of whom grew up on nearby farms, largely recalled solitary and family activities in their childhoods. What is more visible to the researcher are those structured leisure activities recorded in writing. From the 1900s on these included many dances, "socials," balls, and card-parties. Palo Alto lacked a commercial dance hall, but Stanford fraternities and many clubs in town sponsored dances; a few clubs were organized solely for that purpose. The Cardinal Hotel provided music and a dance floor starting in 1924. Dances continued to be popular throughout the era, although their number appeared to taper off Verb 1. taper off - end weakly; "The music just petered out--there was no proper ending" fizzle, fizzle out, peter out discontinue - come to or be at an end; "the support from our sponsoring agency will discontinue after March 31" 2. in the 1930s. Evenings of card-playing were common from the 1910s through the 1930s. Many clubs held them as fund-raisers. And, of course, people played cards at home. One woman whom we interviewed recalled playing cards playing cards, parts of a set or deck, used in playing various games of chance or skill. The origin of playing cards is unknown, and almost as many theories exist as there are historians of the subject. so often in the 1920s that she hated them ever after. Although Palo Alto barred saloons, there were male "hangouts" in town, in particular, the billiard bil·liard adj. Of, relating to, or used in billiards. n. See carom. Adj. 1. billiard - of or relating to billiards; "a billiard ball"; "a billiard cue"; "a billiard table" parlors. Three were respectable enough to have the standings in their pool competitions reported in the Palo Alto Times. Organized sports appeared early in Palo Alto. Twenty-four people belonged to the cycling club A cycling club is a club or society formed by and for cyclists, and is usually focused in a particular geographic location, perhaps a region, town or city suburb, as well as national cycling clubs, such as the United Kingdom's Cyclists' Touring Club, CTC) and also internet based in 1895. By 1909, fratemal groups and church clubs each had a softball league. In 1936, night softball began in Palo Alto, and by 1939, there were a few city leagues. Performances also expanded greatly. From the 1890s on, both amateur and professional groups performed in Palo Alto. As late as the 1930s, organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a Colonial patriotic society in the United States, open to women having one or more ancestors who aided the cause of the Revolution. The society was organized (1890) at Washington, D.C. and the Business and Professional Women's Club Women’s clubs first arose in the United States during the post-civil war period. As a result of increased leisure time due to modern household advances, middle class women had more time to engage in intellectual pursuits. put on plays as fund-raisers. After World War I, a new community center sponsored and housed many activities, including lectures, amateur musicales, and crafts courses. The Palo Alto Community Players theater group grew from 100 to 600 members during the 1930s. The volume of projects declined during the Depression, our interviewees suggested, but this followed a long period of growth. Commercial performances also increased much over the years. Spectator sports started early, centered on Stanford's teams. By 1917 Palo Alto's semi-pro Outlaws played in the regional baseball league. Although a variety of live shows had always come through town, the major change was the rise of the movies. By 1908, three places showed films. Two women not only recalled attending movies in the 1910s and 1920s but also the risk it entailed: Stanford boys often got rowdy at the Bijou, to the point of throwing vegetables at the screen. Palo Alto's clubs conducted many programs, including cultural education and community good works, but almost all of them were at least partly places for entertainment and sociability. Before World War I, the classic fraternal clubs and church auxiliaries dominated association life. Membership was robust. The major churches had affiliated men's and women's clubs women's clubs, groups that offer social, recreational, and cultural activities for adult females. Particularly strong in the United States, they became an important part of American town and village life in the latter part of the 19th cent. , such as the Ladies' Circle of the Presbyterian Church. (A 1936 survey counted 43 such church-linked groups.) These clubs sponsored lectures, dances, amateur shows, card parties, athletic teams, and parades; they arranged outings and held many banquets. Many club activities, such as the dances, were open to the public. After World War I, the fraternal organizations declined, while veterans' organizations This is a list of veterans' organizations. Australia
2. Nature has divided the kindred of every one into three principal classes. 1. His children, and their descendants. 2. His father, mother, and other ascendants. 3. attended more to civic causes and focussed their activities on luncheon and dinner speeches. Many Palo Alto women also joined specifically women's organizations This is a list of women's organisations. International
Antioch.(28) A few of our Antioch interviewees who grew up on nearby farms reported childhoods of solitary activities and "visiting." Those raised in town recalled general mischief but few structured activities. Antioch was a robust saloon town in the earlier years, and, although that male culture survived Prohibition, the saloon and brothel scene waned. In 1900 and 1920, Dun & Bradstreet reported at least seven "saloons" in Antioch, but in 1940, it listed only one "beverage and billiards billiards, any one of a number of games played with a tapered, leather-tipped stick called a cue and various numbers of balls on a rectangular, cloth-covered slate table with raised and cushioned edges. " and one "cigarettes and beverages" establishment. Antiochians shared in the dance interest of the 1910s and '20s. Our interviewees recalled barn and open-air dances in the 1920s and driving to attend hotel dances in the region. They also reported that card-playing and softball were popular. Antioch's first theater opened in 1905, its first devoted movie house in 1911, and a vaudeville theater in 1928. Our interviewees described Antiochians as sports-minded; groups would follow the local football team to its matches around the region. As elsewhere, much of Antioch's social life revolved around the clubs and that life expanded over time. The January 16, 1915, issue of the Ledger listed the following events for the week: installations for the Eagles, O.E.S. (Order of the Eastern Star The Order of the Eastern Star is the largest fraternal organization in the world that both men and women can join. It was established in 1850 by Rob Morris, a lawyer and educator from Boston, Massachusetts who had been an official with the Freemasons. ), and Red Men; a Native Sons fund-raiser for homeless children; conferring of degrees by the Odd Fellows; initiation of new members by the Rebekahs; a Women's Club whist whist, card game for four players, those on opposite sides of the table being partners. The full pack of 52 cards is dealt. The dealer's last card is turned up to indicate trump, and after he draws this card in hand, the player on the left of the dealer leads. tournament; and the Methodist church's "English Style Social." The Depression-era January 16, 1935, issue listed (for a town of under 5,000 people): an American Legion American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. banquet; Young Men's and Young Women's Institutes meetings; American Legion winter sports winter sports: see bobsledding; curling; hockey, ice; ice dancing; ice skating; skiing; snowshoes; tobogganing. carnival; installations for the Rebekahs, Odd Fellows, and Encampment; a dance sponsored by Job's Daughters; a musical program at the Women's Club; meetings of the American Legion auxiliary The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) is a U.S.-headquartered patriotic service organization for women interested in voluntary service. It is a non-profit organization, affiliated with The American Legion (a veterans' service organization). and of its sewing club; a Methodist church potluck; a city league football game; a meeting of the concert band; a "Saturday Niter's" dance; and an F.D.R. birthday ball. The fraternal groups expanded quickly between 1890 and World War I; they shrank after the war. About half our informants reported that they or their parents had been active in or enjoyed the hospitality of clubs such as the Masons, Rebekahs, Kiwanis, and church groups during the 1920s. The Native Sons of the Golden West's annual talent show and annual masquerade ball was considered a highlight for many years. Some of Antioch's fraternal groups eventually merged with the branches in the neighboring town of Pittsburg. Church groups also sponsored social events, such as the "Old-Fashioned Ball" at the Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784. Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke were the first bishops. in 1910 ("Come and see if your parents in the 'good old days,' really did have more fun than we do nowadays").(29) After World War I, the Lions appeared in Antioch, but service clubs did not seem to become very prominent in Antioch between the Wars. The active American Legion sponsored sports, dances, and the Armistice Armistice (Nov. 11, 1918) Agreement between Germany and the Allies ending World War I. Allied representatives met with a German delegation in a railway carriage at Rethondes, France, to discuss terms. The agreement was signed on Nov. Ball. Wives of Antioch's eminent men formed the Women's Club in 1902. They did good works, such as providing benches at the railway station. They spent most of their time, however, on social activities. After the War, Women's Club meetings declined from weekly to biweekly, as attendance waned.(30) The general level of civic activity was lower in Antioch than in the other two towns. It was a smaller town, a poorer town, and, over the years, a town increasingly populated pop·u·late tr.v. pop·u·lat·ed, pop·u·lat·ing, pop·u·lates 1. To supply with inhabitants, as by colonization; people. 2. by immigrant laborers. San Rafael.(31) Leisure in early San Rafael conspicuously included saloons, beer gardens, and poolhalls. In 1910, the Dun and Bradstreet Credit Reports named 29 "saloons" respectable enough to be listed in a town of 6,000 people. By 1940 there were only 14 similar businesses. Prohibition and reform had shut down the less reputable saloons, and the saloon culture had shrunk. Dancing was popular and many nearby places--hotels, clubhouses, and later dance halls--provided music and space. Several interviewees recalled driving to dance pavilions near San Rafael during the 1920s. Cardplaying developed with the clubs. A couple of our interviewees reported that both dancing and cardplaying slowed in the 1930s. Sports participation grew: while a newspaper reader in the 1890s could follow one or two local amateur athletic leagues, by 1938 there were many: a fraternal groups' baseball league, a merchants' baseball league, church-affiliated basketball leagues This is a list of current and defunct Basketball Leagues. Current Leagues The league names are listed below. Men's Leagues Leagues from the U.S., Canada, Mexico
Our interviewees recalled that social life in San Rafael revolved around clubs in the interwar period “Interbellum” redirects here. For other uses, see Interbellum (disambiguation). The interwar period (also interbellum) is understood within Western culture to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in . With their dances and cardgames, recalled one, there was "probably somewhere to go every night." Fraternal organizations grew from eight in 1900 to 25 in 1935 and membership apparently grew as well, even while members from suburban villages split to form their own branches. Clubs' social activities seemingly shifted from sponsoring performances in the earlier years to active recreation such as balls, dances, and outings in the later years. At the same time, cultural clubs developed for people interested in activities such as musical performance. The San Rafael Improvement Club, formed in 1902, was the major women's civic organization, although it also provided social activities. After World War I, other women's groups emerged, such as the PTA PTA or parent-teacher association: see parent education. and the Mothers' Club. Among their projects, these groups furnished sociability for their members and organized fund-raising recreations that welcomed outsiders. Summary. In brief, the press and personal accounts point to an increasing volume of club-based leisure, although different clubs were robust at different times. Clubs' active recreation--e.g., sports, dances, crafts--seemed to increase more than did the traditional performances and lectures they sponsored. Saloon-based leisure in Antioch and San Rafael declined, perhaps displaced by new commercial entertainments or perhaps simply sinking along with America's "bachelor" subculture subculture /sub·cul·ture/ (sub´kul-chur) a culture of bacteria derived from another culture. sub·cul·ture n. .(33) Movies increasingly occupied much leisure, displacing vaudeville and far more. People used the automobile for major outings--many of our interviewees fondly reminisced about adventurous automobile trips to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite Park during the late '10s and the '20s--and to attend nearer social activities, such as the hotel dances. These accounts underline the increasing role of associations in community leisure, although we have no written evidence and no testimony that informal recreation declined. Indeed, informal activities, by their nature, are hard to track, except perhaps in the occasional entries of compulsive diarists This is a list of diarists. This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by [ expanding it]. A - F
In sum, these three case studies describe a growth in organized activities and a growth in commercial leisure. Being confident about what happened to informal activities--walks in the neighborhood, piano-playing, picnics, etc.--is much more difficult. Yet, one reads and hears of so much clearly new informal activity--card-playing, dances, Sunday drives, camping trips to the mountains, and so on--suggesting that there was, at the least, probably no reduction in informal sociability. Statistical Analysis of Recreation Reports For a more systematic view of changes in leisure, we coded and counted stories and notices of leisure activities that appeared in the three towns' newspapers.(35) Several problems arise in using newspapers as a source, perhaps the most critical being the possibility that editorial changes mislead us about historical change (see discussion below). Another difficulty is that newspapers are less likely to report everyday, private leisure, concentrating instead on uncommon and public events. Newspapers did, to some extent, report on private activities, noting, for example, when a family received visitors or held a birthday party. But newspapers surely did not chronicle the vast bulk of private leisure, and the chances of such an activity being reported probably declined over time.(36) Nevertheless, these accounts allow us to track how reports of newsworthy news·wor·thy adj. news·wor·thi·er, news·wor·thi·est Of sufficient interest or importance to the public to warrant reporting in the media. news events changed. And, other than the kinds of oral histories used earlier, they provide almost the only systematic accounts we could have.(37) Sampling and Coding. We sampled four issues each of the Antioch Ledger, Palo Alto Times, and Marin (San Rafael) Journal for every even-numbered year from 1890 through 1940, where available: the first Monday First Monday is a short-lived U.S. television drama centered on the U.S. Supreme Court. Created by JAG creator Donald Bellisario, the show aired on CBS from January until May of 2002. after January 20, first Friday First Friday is a city-wide public event that occurs on the first Friday of every month. The events may take on many purposes, including art gallery openings and social networking. after February 1, the first Monday after May 1, and the first Friday after May 15--or the nearest following days.(38) Each issue was examined for stories about past leisure activities (e.g., "Debutante Ball a Big Smash"; "Roberts Family Tours Yosemite"), announcements of coming events (e.g., "Roxie to Show Pickford Film"), social columns, personal notes, lodge and club reports, and the like.(39) We ignored "hard news" stories, syndicated features, duplications, and obvious advertisements. (We did, however, code ads announcing shows.) We coded each qualifying item on various dimensions: types of activity--primary and secondary (e.g., if the Women's Club held a meeting followed by card games, we coded the event both as "meeting" and as "games"), the primary and secondary sponsors of the event (e.g., a church group and an ethnic association), its location, who was invited to it, and so forth. The double-coding means that the same event may appear in two different tabulations. Analysis. In all, we coded over 9,700 such items in 272 newspaper issues. We aggregated them into the largest and most meaningful categories and intersections of categories, such as "organized sports sponsored by schools," "socials open to the public," and "lectures presented by voluntary associations."(40) For economy's sake, I focus on only a handful of these measures. The figures presented below display the average number of events per newspaper edition in each decade. For most decades, each town's estimate is the average over 20 issues--four issues times five years--of the town press. (I also conducted but do not present here regression analyses for the same measures. In those analyses, each year for each town was treated as a separate case. Tables are available from the author on request.) These are "noisy" and erratic data, in part, because many event categories had low frequencies.(41) Not much weight should be put on small variations. More importantly, the reports were subject to substantive distortions based on editorial policy. Establishing a sports or women's section, adding pages, expanding wire service use, printing a "lodge" column--these and other changes in the newspapers no doubt altered the coverage of leisure events. It may be that an editorial decision, say, to embellish the town's reputation as an active community, would produce an expansion of organizational reports in the subsequent years. Given the complexity of these distortions, there is no simple way to correct for them.(42) Instead, we must try to discern the broader patterns in the data and reason about their likely causes, taking into account our substantive knowledge of the newspapers' histories.(43) For example, the Palo Alto Times established a society page after World War I, which may explain a resurgence in reported social events. The Times also established a sports page Noun 1. sports page - any page in the sports section of a newspaper page - one side of one leaf (of a book or magazine or newspaper or letter etc.) or the written or pictorial matter it contains , which may explain part of the increase in organized sports events reported there. What we are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. are the basic, secular trends in the number of leisure events of various types. In particular, we wish to track changes in organizational, commercial versus noncommercial, and public versus private leisure activities. I categorized the events for which there were sufficient instances according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. : (1) content of activity--club meetings (i.e., meetings of voluntary associations), commercially-sponsored performances (movies, vaudeville, etc.), amateur performances (shows, pageants, etc., exclusive of school or university productions), organized sports (exclusive of school sports), and "socials" (mixers, teas, sewing parties, and so forth); dances and games, notably, club-sponsored card games, are not displayed but show similar patterns; (2) sponsor (private, organizational, or commercial); and (3) who was invited (private associates only, club members only, the wider public). Two further methodological issues arise: (1) Should population growth be controlled in the analysis? That is, should these numbers be calculated as per capita rates per capita rate A rate proportional to the number of persons in a population ? (2) Should the volume of press reports be controlled? That is, should these counts be calculated as per-newspaper page rates? Consideration of these issues suggests that on both substantive and technical grounds, these adjustments need and ought not be done, that absolute counts are the best measures.(44) Findings. Clubs and other voluntary associations became much more visible over the years. Figure 1 displays the estimated average number of organization meetings reported in the town presses per issue per decade. Note that the Antioch data commence with 1908. Between-town comparisons are misleading; the reader should focus on the time trends for each town. The average number of voluntary association meetings reported generally increased over time and jumped after 1920, especially in Palo Alto. (While editorial changes may explain the radical jump in Palo Alto, the expansion is clear for all three towns.) We will see the role of clubs again later. Figure 2 displays the patterns of change for four specific types of leisure events, categorized mainly by content: commercially-sponsored performances, largely composed of movies; amateur performances, such as theatrical fund-raisers; organized participatory sports, such as league softball games; and "socials." (The patterns for "socials" also fairly suggest those for dances and for "game" evenings, such as whist parties.) Town newspapers reported more commercial performances over time, especially in Palo Alto. Amateur performances increased systematically in all three towns, except for a decline in Antioch in the 1930s. These counts cannot tell us about the size of the audiences. The movies, for example, probably drew far more people than did the Community Players' Spring drama. But amateur shows appear to have thrived alongside commercial ones. Reports of organized sports grew almost exponentially in Antioch and Palo Alto from the 1910s on and grew less dramatically in San Rafael.(45) Finally, reports of socials increased in Palo Alto and San Rafael, although the trend was erratic in San Rafael's Marin Journal. In Antioch, accounts of socials peaked in the 1920s. Regression analyses of the raw data also show that participatory recreation--amateur performances, sports, socials, dances, and games--generally increased as or more uniformly and rapidly than did commercial performances. If these news items are any indication, therefore, residents of these towns, excepting perhaps Antioch, engaged in both more and more varied active recreation as the years passed, the growth of commercial entertainment notwithstanding.(46) Another way to sort these activities is by sponsor, that is, whether the event was under the auspices of an organization, a commercial business, or a private party. The "private" category typically included social notes, such as the Joneses having entertained out-of-town guests, or the Smiths' wedding. One might have expected that population growth would have discouraged such personal tidbits TidBITS is an award-winning electronic newsletter and web site dealing primarily with Apple Computer and Macintosh-related topics. Internet publication TidBITS has been published weekly since April 16, 1990, which makes it one of the longest running Internet publications. in the press, from the crush of sheer volume alone. For Antioch, reports of private events peaked in the early 1920s and dropped off rapidly afterwards. But in Palo Alto and San Rafael, there were cycles, with no clear trend in privately-sponsored events. Club-sponsored events, not including simple meetings,(47) grew several-fold in Palo Alto and San Rafael and more moderately in Antioch. The number of commercial events reported, which would include activities such as hotel-sponsored dances and vaudeville shows as well as movies, grew sharply in Palo Alto but only modestly in the other two towns. Figure 3 reinforces the impression that the major change during these decades was toward more club-based activities.(48) Figure 4 divides the events in a different way, according to who was invited to them. Activities could be private to family and friends, or meant solely for members of a club, or open to the public. While these categories overlap considerably with the sponsorship distinctions just reported, they are different. In particular, many clubs held events, such as charity balls, intended for the entire community. Figure 4 shows that stories about events open to intimates only had no consistent trend. Events meant only for club members increased, especially after 1920. The largest expansion was in events open to the public, which also includes, of course, most commercial events.(49) Discussion What do these findings say about the questions raised earlier? First, did organized recreation displace informal leisure? The number of reported organized events grew substantially and in all three towns (which undercuts the suspicion that it was an artifact A distortion in an image or sound caused by a limitation or malfunction in the hardware or software. Artifacts may or may not be easily detectable. Under intense inspection, one might find artifacts all the time, but a few pixels out of balance or a few milliseconds of abnormal sound of editorial decisions). But we cannot make any strong claims about the volume of informal recreation. The numerical data Numerical data (or quantitative data) is data measured or identified on a numerical scale. Numerical data can be analysed using statistical methods, and results can be displayed using tables, charts, histograms and graphs. for Antioch most closely suggests displacement of informal recreation, in the same vein as the Lynds' account in Middletown; that is, newspaper reports of private events declined in the 1930s. But it is the only case to do so and may be explained by the changing population of Antioch, increasingly immigrant laborers, or the strains of the Depression. Also, reports of private events seem most vulnerable to editorial changes. (We can assume that as the volume of population and of news grew, editors were quicker to drop items like "The Joneses drove to Tahoe this week" than to drop other leisure news, such as a church charity event.) Other sources, such as the oral histories, do not suggest that informal sociability declined. A few of our interviewees did talk about the loss of things like "old-fashioned" neighborly neigh·bor·ly adj. Having or exhibiting the qualities of a friendly neighbor. neigh  bor·li·ness n.Adj. 1. visits, but at least as many recounted an increasing whirl of dates and outings with friends and family. Perhaps the best conclusion is that organized leisure events grew, despite the Depression, but that informal events stayed constant at the least. Second, did commercial activities displace noncommercial ones? Apparently they did not, at least in terms of frequency. Commercial recreation increased, especially if we add regular radio-listening to the activities noted in the newspapers, but other recreation did not seem to suffer. Third, did private leisure displace public events? Not by these data. Whether measured by sponsorship or attendance, group and public activities increased the most. Perhaps the best way to make sense of these findings is to abandon the language of displacement. Specific activities were replaced, to be sure. As noted earlier, the lively saloon cultures of Antioch and San Rafael diminished, fraternal groups lost ground to service clubs, and so on. But, it is not evident that this replacement follows the logic of the arguments outlined earlier. For example, club-based and commercial activities swelled, especially in Palo Alto and San Rafael. But they probably augmented informal and private activities, rather than displaced them. These findings are, the reader appreciates, far from definitive and need more exploration. The trends may have varied by class: perhaps middle-class people gained by the changes and working-class people lost. (And, certainly, these newspapers recorded the recreation of the lower orders less often than that of the higher ones.) The findings may be particular also by region and type of community. The conclusions here are consistent, however, with Brunner and Kolb's concerning rural life in the 1920s and Rosenzweig's concerning workers in Worcester.(50) Still, finer explorations are called for. Future research could broaden the scope of this study geographically and temporally. The three modestly-sized towns of this study, although common for turn-of-the-century Americans, do not represent the large urban centers, nor the ethnic neighborhoods of those cities. It would also be valuable to move further back in time, before the emergence of leisure institutions such as professional sports and amusement parks This page contains a list of amusement parks by
Finally, I turn to the implications of this study for the displacement thesis. That thesis assumes, in part, that leisure time was constant; but those hours surely grew much between 1890 and 1940. Displacement also assumes that people do one thing at a time, when they often combine activities--for example, going for a spin in the country with friends, as many of our informants did, or out to a show with the family. (In one 1930s survey, 72% of those who took pleasure rides in their automobiles did so with their families.(52)) These assumptions in the displacement argument may be wrong. What probably happened between 1890 and 1940 was an increase in the total volume of recreation Americans engaged in. Americans' leisure time included organized and informal activities, commercial and self-generated ones, private and collective ones. Although the mix may well have changed, and many specific recreations--vaudeville shows, hayrides, etc.--declined, the different types of leisure persisted. These conclusions should not be taken as dismissal of claims that different sorts of leisure changes occurred at other times. It may be, for example, that the 19th century saw the "fall of public man,"(53) the decline of male pub and cafe life in favor of Victorian, private domesticity Domesticity See also Wifeliness. Crocker, Betty leading brand of baking products; byword for one expert in homemaking skills. [Trademarks: Crowley Trade, 56] Dick Van Dyke Show, The . It seems persuasive, also, that after World War II mass suburbanization and television encouraged private familism, even displacing public activities such as movie attendance. But in the period examined here, one of great social change, and the places studied here, typical of where Americans lived, such displacement did not occur. In any event, the more complex the sequence of changes in leisure activities, such as the rise and fall of dance halls and of movie attendance, the less we should be willing to accept simple modernization models. Department of Sociology Noun 1. department of sociology - the academic department responsible for teaching and research in sociology sociology department academic department - a division of a school that is responsible for a given subject Berkeley, CA 94720 ENDNOTES An earlier version of this paper was presented to the American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905 as the the American Sociological Society (ASS), is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to , Washington, DC, August 1990. Financial support for the larger work came from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) U.S. independent agency. Founded in 1965, it supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. , the Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is a small foundation located in New York City that is devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. The foundation is a research center and a funding source for studies by scholars at other institutions, and publishes the books that derive , and the Andrew Mellon Foundation Mellon Foundation, officially the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, philanthropic trust formed (1969) through the merger of the Avalon Foundation (est. 1940 by Ailsa Mellon Bruce) and the Old Dominion Foundation (est. 1941 by Paul Mellon). via the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences behavioral sciences, n.pl those sciences devoted to the study of human and animal behavior. , Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 13,315 at the 2000 census. Stanford is an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County and is adjacent to the city of Palo Alto. . Assistants who contributed include Melanie Archer, William Archer, William, 1856–1924, English author, critic, and translator, b. Scotland. Throughout his life he worked as drama critic on several London newspapers. Barnett, John Chan, Steve Derne, Barry Goetz, Kinuthia Macharia, Barbara Loomis, Lisa Rhode, and Laura Weide. The paper was improved by the comments of Journal reviewers. 1. Between 1890 and 1940, Americans' average work hours per week dropped from about 54 to about 44. In addition, the extension of life and the reduction of family size probably added to free time, as well (Geoffrey H. Moore, and Janice N. Hedges, "Trends in Labor and Leisure," Monthly Labor Review The Monthly Labor Review is a publication by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly publications are usually published by topic. Researchers outside of the BLS are welcome to submit their articles. External links
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , 1972~, pp. 17-86). 2. See, e.g., Rolf Meyersohn, "Leisure," in The Human Meaning of Social Change, edited by Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse (New York, 1972), pp. 205-28. 3. Atherton, Main Street on the Middle Border (Bloomington, 1954), pp. 246ff. See also John S. Gilkeson, Jr., Middle-Class Providence, 1820-1940 (Princeton, NJ, 1986), Ch. 4. On the "organizational synthesis" version of mass society theory, see, for example, Alan Brinkley Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University, where he is also provost. He is a progressive historian of the New Deal. Brinkley writes regularly in magazines such as Newsweek and The New Republic and is a strong advocate for progressive issues. , "Prosperity, Depression, and War, 1920-1945," in Eric Foner Eric Foner (born February 7, 1943 in New York City) is an American historian. He has been a faculty member in the department of history at Columbia University since 1982 and writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, (ed.), The New American History (Philadelphia, 1990), pp. 119-41. See also: T. J. Jackson Lears, "Mass Culture and Its Critics," in Encyclopedia of American Social History, edited by M. K. Cayton, E. J. Gorn, and P. W. Williams, (New York, 1993), pp. 1591-1610. 4. Middletown (New York, 1929); also Robert Lynd Robert Lynd may be
5. Barth, City People (New York, 1980); see also Dale Somers, "The Leisure Revolution: Recreation in the American City, 1820-1920," Journal of Popular Culture The Journal of Popular Culture (JPC) is a peer-reviewed journal and the official publication of the Popular Culture Association. The popular culture movement was founded on the principle that the perspectives and experiences of common folk offer compelling insights into the 5 (Summer 1971): 125-47; Francis Couvares, "The Triumph of Commerce: Class Culture and Mass Culture in Pittsburgh," in Working-Class America, edited by M. H. Frisch and D. J. Walkowitz, (Urbana, 1983), pp. 123-52; William R. Leach, "Transformations in a Culture of Consumption: Women and Department Stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. , 1890-1925." Journal of American History The Journal of American History (sometimes abbreviated as JAH), is the official journal of the Organization of American Historians. It was first published in 1914 as the Mississippi Valley Historical Review 71 (September 1984): 319-42; and the collection edited by Richard Butsch, For Fun and Profit: The Transformation of Leisure into Consumption, (Philadelphia, 1990). 6. Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture & Society in the Gilded Age Gilded Age The years between the Civil War and World War I when institutions undertook financial manipulations that went virtually unchecked by government. This era produced many infamous activities in the security markets. (New York, 1982), pp. 122-23. 7. See, for example, Sebastian de Grazia Sebastien de Grazia, (1917-2001), was a Pulitzer prize winning author. Born in Chicago, de Grazia received his bachelor's degree and a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago. He taught political philosophy at Rutgers from 1962 to 1988. , Of Time, Work, and Leisure (New York, 1962); David Popenoe, Private Pleasures, Public Plight (New Brunswick New Brunswick, province, Canada New Brunswick, province (2001 pop. 729,498), 28,345 sq mi (73,433 sq km), including 519 sq mi (1,345 sq km) of water surface, E Canada. , NJ, 1985); Kenneth Jackson Kenneth Jackson is the name of two scholars:
n. 1. A controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine. 2. A person engaged in or inclined to controversy, argument, or refutation. adj. rendition, Richard Sennett Richard Sennett (born Chicago, 1 January 1943) is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Professor of the Humanities at New York University. , The Fall of Public Man (New York, 1977). 8. McKelvey, The Urbanization of America (New Brunswick, 1963), Chapter 13. 9. Reiss, City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports (Urbana, 1989), Chapter 2. 10. For example, Daniel Horowitz Daniel Aaron Horowitz (born December 14, 1954) is a high-profile defense attorney and TV legal analyst with an extensive computer and business background. He was one of the first attorneys to bring a computer into the courtroom. , The Morality of Spending: Attitudes toward the Consumer Society in America, 1875-1940 (Baltimore, 1985); Michael Schudson Michael Schudson is an American academic sociologist working in the fields of journalism and its history, and public culture. He was brought up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. , "Delectable Materialism: Were the Critics of Consumer Culture Wrong All Along?," The American Prospect 5 (Spring 1991): 26-35; Jean-Christophe Agnew, "Coming Up for Air: Consumer Culture in Historical Perspective," MS, Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was , n.d. 11. For more detail on the towns, see Claude S. Fischer Claude Serge Fischer (b. January 9, 1948) is a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in urban sociology, research methods, and American society at UC-Berkeley. , America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (Berkeley, 1992). 12. My assistants and I gathered these materials as part of a larger research project on the social history of the telephone (Fischer, America Calling). 13. The statistics are from Bureau of the Census Noun 1. Bureau of the Census - the bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census; provides demographic information and analyses about the population of the United States Census Bureau (Historical Statistics of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , 1790-1970, Washington, 1975, pp. 399-400; Statistical Abstract of the United States The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a publication of the United States Census Bureau, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce. Published annually since 1878, the statistics describe social and economic conditions in the United States. 1990, Washington, 1990, p. 230). See Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Philadelphia, 1986), and Roy Rosenzweig, Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (New York, 1985), for studies of the role of movies in working-class leisure time. 14. "In the air:" quoted by Frederick Lewis Allen Frederick Lewis Allen (July 5, 1890 Boston, Massachusetts - February 13, 1954 New York City) was the editor of Harper's Magazine and also notable as an American historian of the first half of the twentieth century. , Only Yesterday (New York, 1964), p. 65; statistics: Bureau of Census Bureau of Census A division of the federal government of the United States Bureau of Commerce that is responsible for conducting the national census at least once every 10 years, in which the population of the United States is counted. (Historical Statistics, p. 796). 15. A Gallup poll Gallup Poll Noun a sampling of the views of a representative cross section of the population, usually used to forecast voting [after G H Gallup, statistician] Gallup poll n → in 1938 found that 21% claimed reading as their favorite leisure activity, followed by movies and theater (17%), dancing (12%), and listening to the radio and playing games, such as cards (both 9%; John P. Robinson, "'Massification' and the Democratization de·moc·ra·tize tr.v. de·moc·ra·tized, de·moc·ra·tiz·ing, de·moc·ra·tiz·es To make democratic. de·moc of the Leisure Class," Annals of the American Academy The American Academy in Berlin is a non-partisan academic institution in Berlin. It was founded in September 1994 by a group of prominent Americans and Germans, among them Richard Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, Richard von Weizsäcker, Fritz Stern and Otto Graf Lambsdorff and opened in 435 |January, 1978~: 220). 16. J. F. Steiner, "Recreation and Leisure Time Activities," in Recent Social Trends, edited by President's Research Committee on Social Trends, Vol. II, (New York 1933), p. 921; Bureau of Census (Historical Statistics, p. 396). See Warren Belascoe, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945 (Cambridge, MA, 1979), and "Cars Versus Trains: 1980 and 1910," in Energy and Transport, edited by G. H. Daniels and M. H. Rose (Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. , CA, 1982), pp. 39-53, for thorough studies of auto-touring. 17. On baseball and bowling: Bureau of Census (Historical Statistics, p. 399); on sports watching and playing, see, e.g., Foster Rhea rhea, in zoology rhea (rē`ə), common name for a South American bird of the family Rheidae, which is related to the ostrich. Weighing from 44 to 55 lb (20–25 kg) and standing up to 60 in. Dulles, America Learns to Play: A History of Popular Recreation, 1607-1940 (New York, 1940), Ch. 21. On dance halls, see Steiner, "Recreation and Leisure Time Activities," and Peiss, Cheap Amusements. 18. Lloyd Warner, et al., Yankee City, Abridged Edition (New Haven New Haven, city (1990 pop. 130,474), New Haven co., S Conn., a port of entry where the Quinnipiac and other small rivers enter Long Island Sound; inc. 1784. Firearms and ammunition, clocks and watches, tools, rubber and paper products, and textiles are among the many , CT, 1963); George A. Lundberg, Mirra Komarovsky, and Mary Alice Mary Alice Smith (born December 3, 1941 in Indianola, Mississippi, U.S.) is an Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actress. In 1987 she received a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Fences. McInerny, Leisure: A Suburban Study (New York, 1934); luncheons: Steiner, "Recreation and Leisure Time Activities;" Lynd and Lynd, Middletown, Part IV; and Robert Lynd and Helen Lynd, Middletown in Transition (New York, 1937), Ch. 7. 19. E. de S. Brunner, and J. K. Kolb, Rural Social Trends (New York, 1933), pp. 255-56. They also noted a decline in the fraternal lodges even while other activity groups increased (pp. 244, 262). 20. Displacement: e.g., Gilkeson, Middle-Class Providence, p. 9, Ch. 6. John Clark, "Pessimism versus Populism populism Political program or movement that champions the common person, usually by favourable contrast with an elite. Populism usually combines elements of the left and right, opposing large business and financial interests but also frequently being hostile to established : The Problematic Politics of Popular Culture," in For Fun and Profit: The Transformation of Leisure into Consumption, edited by Richard Butsch, (Philadelphia, 1990), pp. 28-46. For an example of compensation arguments, Somers ("The Leisure Revolution," p. 136) quotes John Higham John Higham may refer to:
21. Thomas, Bender, Community and Social Change in America (New Brunswick, NJ, 1978). 22. Rosenzweig, Eight Hours; Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s," American Quarterly American Quarterly (sometimes abbreviated AQ), is an academic journal and the official publication of the American Studies Association. The journal covers topics of both domestic and international concern in the United States and is considered a leading resource in 41 (March 1989): 6-33; cf. Couvares, "The Triumph of Commerce." 23. John Chan used personal networks to find interviewees in San Rafael, Laura Weide and Lisa Rhode used institutional contacts, such as churches and historical societies, to find their interviewees in Antioch and Palo Alto. I have drawn on these assistants' interview summaries for the present analysis. 24. Oral histories have their limitations. The interviewees were not always consistent with one another or with themselves (see Fischer, American Calling, p. 360, n2). But this material is invaluable for fleshing out our views of the past. 25. This account draws primarily from the Palo Alto Times, various materials held by the Palo Alto Historical Association (PAHA PAHA para-aminohippuric acid. ), the Community Recreation Survey, 1936 (at PAHA), and records such as the Report of Community House collected in the city's Annual Reports. All these were read and summarized by Steve Derne. I draw, in addition, on the interviews done in Palo Alto by Lisa Rhode. 26. There is a significant literature on women's organizations during this era and a recurrent question is what happened to their militancy after suffrage. See, for example, Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, Women in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1933); Nancy E Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (New Haven, 1987); J. Stanley Lemons, The Woman Citizen (Chicago, 1973); and Lois Scharf and Joan M. Jensen (eds.), Decades of Discontent (Westport, CT, 1983). 27. Women interested in more community activities joined the Civic League, which had spun off from the suffrage movement in 1912. By 1918, there was virtually no overlap in membership between the Women's Club and the Civic League. Sources on the Women's Club include: Mrs. F. G. Frink, c. 1936, "The Women's Club of Palo Alto, 1924-1936," Typescript, Yearbooks of the Women's Club, and other Women's Club materials in the PAHA. 28. The major source on Antioch's leisure life comes from reading of the Antioch Ledger by Barbara Loomis, supplemented by Elise Schott Benyo, Antioch to the Twenties (Antioch, CA, 1972); Charles A. Bohakel, Historic Tales of East Contra Costa Contra Costa can refer to:
29. Ledger, 30 July 1910. 30. See "Women's Club of Antioch: Golden Anniversary Year, 1902-1952," Pamphlet at the Antioch Historical Society; Benyo, Antioch to the Twenties; the Contra Costa Gazette; and the Ledger. 31. Information on San Rafael comes largely from its two newspapers, as read by John Chan, and interviews he conducted with several old-timers. 32. This impression, however, is not sustained by the numerical analysis numerical analysis Branch of applied mathematics that studies methods for solving complicated equations using arithmetic operations, often so complex that they require a computer, to approximate the processes of analysis (i.e., calculus). reported below. 33. John C. Schneider, "Homeless Men and Housing Policy in Urban America, 1850-1920," Paper presented to the Social Science History Association, (New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded , 1987), among others, has pointed out that urban districts that used to cater to single men by providing flop houses, cigar shops, saloons, brothels BROTHELS, crim. law. Bawdy-houses, the common habitations of prostitutes; such places have always been deemed common nuisances in the United States, and the keepers of them may be fined and imprisoned. 2. , and the like, declined in the early twentieth century to mere skid rows. Among the reasons proffered is changing labor conditions and a simple decline in the number of unmarried adult men. See also Perry R. Duis, The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1900 (Urbana, IL, 1983) and Jon M. Kingsdale, "The 'Poor Man's Club:' Social Functions of the Urban Working-Class Saloon," American Quarterly 25 (October 1973): 472-92. 34. To illustrate how simple notions of "modern" activities replacing "traditional" ones may be misleading, consider private automobile touring. To some extent, private auto-touring replaced commercial train tours. But which was the more "modern"? Also, many saw auto-touring as a closer-to-nature experience than train touring. See, for example, Norman T. Moline, Mobility and the Small Town, 1900-1930: Transportation Change in Oregon, Illinois Oregon is a city located in Ogle County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 4,060. It is the county seat of Ogle CountyGR6. Estimates for 2005 show a population of 4,163. (Chicago, 1971); and Belascoe, "Cars versus Trains." 35. See Fischer, America Calling, pp. 314-18. 36. To the degree that over time a given private event--a party, a visit, a vacation--was less likely to be reported to be spoken of; to be mentioned, whether favorably or unfavorably. See also: Report , this would create an apparent but perhaps not "real" decline in informal, private recreation. Thus, the method is somewhat biased toward finding displacement of private by public leisure. 37. Another possible source, detailed diaries, are so unique as not to yield systematic evidence. 38. The Palo Alto Times series does not begin until 1894, the Antioch Ledger until 1908. We sampled only in the Winter and Spring, but that was true for the whole time series. 39. Barry Goetz performed the coding. We made an effort to avoid a correlation between historical time and coding time by having the newspapers coded in various nonsequential orders. 40. William Barnett William Barnett may be:
41. For example, Antioch averaged 2.2 "performances for which admission was charged" per issue of the Ledger between 1908 and 1940. Split-half reliability ranged widely around .60 for different measures. For several categories of events, I correlated the number coded in the first January issue with the number coded in the first May issue. These correlations, which range from zero (the number of "socials" in Antioch in mid-January by the number in early May) to over .90 (the number of card games in San Rafael in January with the number in May), understate un·der·state v. un·der·stat·ed, un·der·stat·ing, un·der·states v.tr. 1. To state with less completeness or truth than seems warranted by the facts. 2. consistency, since we used four issues, not two, per year. Nevertheless, these are quite variable numbers. 42. For example, the number of club meetings reported in Antioch and Palo Alto increased greatly after World War I; so did the number of events reported in the club columns in the newspapers. Did printing such columns lead to more reports when, in fact, there was no great increase in meetings--an artifact? Or did an increase in club activity lead the editors to expand the columns? Only a close historical study of each newspaper--beyond the scope of this project--could answer that question. 43. My assistants were able to reconstruct histories of the newspapers from their close readings of those presses and biographical information about the changing editors. In addition, a key editor of the Palo Alto Times wrote his own history of the town (D. E. Wood, History of Palo Alto |Palo Alto, 1939~). Also, an article in the Marin Journal (27 May 1967) and a report commissioned by the WPA WPA: see Work Projects Administration. WPA in full Works Progress Administration later (1939–43) Work Projects Administration U.S. work program for the unemployed. ("Newspapers," Pamphlet, Marin County Library, n.d.) reviewed the histories of the San Rafael newspapers. 44. The first methodological issue is whether the counts should be adjusted for the population of the towns, calculating events per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. . An increase in reported events may be "spurious," really a product of population growth, not other historical change. This is a difficult substantive and technical issue. Substantively, if we assumed that each particular kind of event, say, a dance or attendance at a game, be it in 1900 or 1940, had roughly the same number of participants, then some form of per capita adjustment would make sense; participation per person may not have increased even if the total number of events did. However, many of these events no doubt grew in the volume of attendance as well as in frequency over time. (I noted earlier that during the 1930s alone the membership of the Palo Alto theater group grew six-fold.) Consequently, dividing the number of events by population would over-correct, underestimating the "true" growth in participation. Similarly, if we think of these events as opportunities for participation, then it is the absolute number that is meaningful. Statistically, population growth accompanies historical time so closely that it is difficult to disentangle the two. In preliminary regression analyses, I discovered that time--i.e., year--was a better predictor of the number of reported events than was town population (except perhaps for predicting the number of commercial events), suggesting that the former was indeed the more critical. On the second concern, newspaper volume, one could adjust the number of reported events for the volume of the entire newspaper in each year. This procedure is also problematic, but I tried it in various regression analyses. The exercise suggested little change in the substantive conclusions. (Details available from author.) 45. This is consistent with Reiss's (City Games, Chapter 2) suggestion that increasing affluence, greater institutional support (parks, Ys, school fields, etc.), and the diffusion of the ideology of sport expanded working-class participation in sports during the 1920s and '30s. 46. A reasonable explanation of Antioch's repeated pattern of uncertain rises and occasional declines is the changing composition of the population in the 1920s and 1930s. Large influxes of first- and second-generation Italian-Americans moved in to work as laborers in the factories of neighboring Pittsburg in the 1920s. Then, in the 1930s, the region received many refugees from the Dust Bowl. Conversely, according to various reports, successful Antiochians often moved elsewhere. 47. I.e., reports of meetings are not counted here. A report that a club held a meeting and a whist contest afterwards is counted. 48. The regression results for "events sponsored by private individuals" reveal a complex pattern of interaction effects. Nevertheless, the general trend is a decline in the number of privately-sponsored events the newspapers reported. The regressions show an increasing number of commercially-sponsored events over time. The greatest change, however, is an increase in the number of club-sponsored affairs. 49. Regression results show a complex and moderate decline in the number of private events reported, similar to that described for privately-sponsored events; an increase after World War I in the number of club members-only events; and a strong increase in the number of events of whatever sponsorship open to the public. 50. Brunner and Kolb, Rural Social Trends; Rosenzweig, Eight Hours. 51. For a recent use of time-budgets, see Joann Vanek, "Work, Leisure, and Family Roles: Farm Households in the United States, 1920-1955," Journal of Family History 5 (Winter 1980): 422-31. 52. Lundberg et al., Leisure, p. 186. 53. Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man (New York, 1977). |
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