Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay shows how newspapers in the postbellum United States invoked the memory of the ancient Spartan woman to express visions of women's place in the emergent American republic that deviated from the Victorian ideal. Journalists and social commentators from the Western, Southern, and Northern United States found in the fit, patriotic, and stoic demeanor of Spartan women, a model for the politically active and publicly involved the “new woman” that they increasingly desired. While primarily targeting middle-class white women, these newspapers and commentators hinted that one could venerate these qualities in females of other classes and social groups.
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