Max Imberman

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Goff, Brendan

Keywords

Fraternal Associations, Freemasons, Civil War

Area of Concentration

History

Abstract

This thesis examines the structure, membership, and growth of American fraternal associations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It explores the Old World origins of these groups as mutual aid societies, as well as the attractiveness it held for a rising class of American bourgeois men who desired a place that satisfied their need for leisure, advancement, and financial support. In addition, it interrogates the ways in which fraternal associations and the government mirrored each other in terms of their federalist structure and representativeness of local and national communities. Fraternal orders provided a useful link between the federal government and the average citizen, a connection heavily depended upon in times of war and expansion. Finally, the thesis examines the way in which fraternal orders functioned both as engines of agency and oppression for women and African-Americans, both mirroring and challenging the systems of segregation and domesticity that defined American life in this era. Fraternal associations were the archetypical organization of their era, and represent the best and worst of what American life had to offer.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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