Age of Reform
The reform spirit caught a range of social, moral,
intellectual, and political issues in its net. The Lyceum movement focused
on intellectual stimulation and debate. Hydropathy, or water cures, drew national
attention. Sylvester Graham introduced a new diet void of meat and spirits.
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. Dorothea Lynde Dix improved treatment
of the insane. Phrenology-the study of the head to determine a person's character-gained
wide popularity. Some took up the cause of dress reform for women (the fashion
of tight corsets to create "wasp" waists actually broke women's ribs. Citizen's
formed Peace Societies. Missionaries traveled far and wide to save souls in
foreign lands. Bronson Alcott and others established utopian communities to
escape the commercializing and industrial world around them. Horace Mann initiated
major education reform. Young women for the first time gained access to higher
education with the founding of Mount Holyoke College in 1837. Everywhere people
were working to make a better world.
Of all the reform movements, three stand out either
for their large following or for their long-term impact on American society
and culture-temperance,
abolition, and women's
rights.
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