Encyclopedia > Reform movement

  Article Content

Reform movement

Reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make a change in certain aspects of the society rather than fundamental changes. It is opposed to radical social movement[?] such as revolutionary movement[?] or reactionary movement[?].

United States Reform Movements of the 1840s

  1. Art -- The Hudson River School of Art[?] defined a distinctive American style of art, depicting romantic landscapes via the Transcendentalist[?] perspective on nature
  2. Science -- John James Audoban[?] founded the science of ornithology (the study of birds)
  3. Utopian Experiments
    1. New Harmony[?] (founder: Robert Owen[?]), practiced economic communism, although it proved economically unviable
    2. Oneida Commune[?] (founder: John Noyes[?]), practiced eugenics, complex marriage[?], and communal living[?]. The commune was supported through the manufacture of silverware[?], and the corporation still exists today, producing spoons and forks for households of the world. The commune sold its assets when Noyes was jailed on numerous charges.
    3. Shakers -- (founder: Mother Ann Lee[?]) Stressed living and worship through dance, supported themselves through manufacture of furniture, still popular today.
    4. Public education reform[?] -- (founder: Horance Mann[?]), goals were a more relevant curriculum and more accessible education. Noah Webster's dictionary standardized English spelling and language; William McGruffery[?]'s hugely successful children's books taught reading in incremental stages.
    5. Literature -- founding of the Transcendentalism[?], stresed high thinking and a spiritial connection to all things (see panthesism[?]).
    6. Women's rights movement (1848) (founders: Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony), began at the Seneca Falls Convention; published a Declaration of Sentiments[?] calling for the legal equality of women.
    7. Prohibition Movement -- Anti-alcohol movement supported by Frances Willard[?]'s Women's Christian Temperance Union, which stressed education; the Anti-Saloon League[?], which Carrie Nation[?] promoted a confrontational approach towards bars and saloons; and the Know-Nothing Party[?], an anti-catholic, anti-immigration, anti-drinking politcal party.
    8. Abolition movement, 1820-60



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
242

... - 4th century Decades: 190s 200s 210s 220s 230s - 240s - 250s 260s 270s 280s 290s Years: 237 238 239 240 241 - 242 - 243 244 245 246 247 Events Patriarch ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 34.8 ms