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About Martha Patterson

Martha H. Patterson is a professor of English at McKendree University. Her books include Beyond the Gibson Girl: Reimagining and the American New Woman, 1895-1915 and The American New Woman Revisited: 1894-1930. Currently, she is co-editing with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Gene Andrew Jarrett a second edition of their anthology The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938.
Latest Posts | By Martha Patterson
The Newest New Nativism
5 years ago

The Newest New Nativism

In September of 1895, Booker T. Washington delivered his famous Atlanta Compromise speech heralding self-reliance, industrial education, and social segregation, and the black press immediately hailed him as the first …
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Feminine Monstrosity in the 2016 Presidential Campaign
8 years ago

Feminine Monstrosity in the 2016 Presidential Campaign

In 1897, the popular humor magazine Life featured the William Walker cartoon “The Inauguration of the Future,” in which a portly, spectacled, middle-aged mannish woman delivers her presidential acceptance speech.  On the …
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