Why was Josiah Strong our country written?
His book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, was written for a limited purpose: to promote missionary activity by Protestant churches. � But it argued for foreign missions with ideas that captured a much wider audience than the limited one Strong had in mind.
What did Josiah Strong’s our country have to say?
In his 1885 book Our Country, Strong argued that Anglo-Saxons are a superior race who must “Christianize and civilize” the “savage” races, which he argued would be good for the American economy and the “lesser races”.
What was Josiah Strong theory?
Strong was a Protestant clergyman who believed that the United States faced a perilous path unless significant reform was instituted. Strong believed that Anglo-Saxons (English-speaking whites) were the most advanced race, and that other races, specifically those who were not Christians, were savages.
What did Josiah Strong think about imperialism?
In the 1890s he also emerged as one of the country’s strongest voices in support of American imperialism, a philosophy that held that the nation needed to expand its sphere of influence around the world to ensure its continued primacy and to save heathen cultures.
What is Josiah Strong Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis 1885 about?
This selection from Josiah Strong’s book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis, illustrates the feeling of white superiority in the United States in the 1880s and 1890s. Strong, like many other people, believed the Anglo-Saxon people were superior to non-Christian, nonwhite peoples.
What specific problems did Josiah Strong have with America’s urban centers in the 1880s?
Strong viewed the large city as a menace to morals and to the social order. He also feared that the tenor of urban culture warred against the teachings of Christianity. The city is the nerve center of our civilization. It is also the storm center.
Who was Josiah Strong’s audience?
”Lesser” races, Strong felt, were those who were non-English speaking immigrants, non-Christians, or non-whites. His ideas were considered progressive because they didn’t promote limitations for other races, but instead, proposed equal civil liberties for those who converted to Christianity.
Did Josiah Strong support the annexation of the Philippines?
He punctuated his claim by stating that it was the Catholic vote which kept Tammany Hall in power. In the case of the Philippines, moral arguments were offered in behalf of annexation. It is our duty, urged Strong, to keep the Philippines, if for no other reason in that these people are not capable of home rule.
What does Strong mean when he says the Anglo Saxons are meant to be their brother’s keeper?
Strong said the Anglo-Saxon represented the highest forms of civil liberty and pure Christianity and was “divinely commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother’s keeper.” Today these words suggest an elitist philosophy that we would expect to find associated with smug complacency in matters of social policy.
When was our country by Josiah Strong?
1885
Josiah Strong, a prominent Congregationalist minister from Ohio, was among the most concerned. In 1885 he published Our Country, a comprehensive critique of modern developments. Strong viewed the large city as a menace to morals and to the social order.
Why was Josiah Strong an imperialist?
Who is Josiah Strong imperialism? In the 1890s he also emerged as one of the country’s strongest voices in support of American imperialism, a philosophy that held that the nation needed to expand its sphere of influence around the world to ensure its continued primacy and to save heathen cultures.
What is the main idea of Blaine’s big sister policy?
Blaine published his “Big Sister” policy tried to get the Latin American countries to open their markets to Americans. Americans were prepared to go to war over many small disputes with other countries. This demonstrated the country’s new aggressive mood.