WINTER, Thomas 1961-

PERSONAL:

Male. Born July 20, 1961, in Bremen, West Germany; immigrated to United States, 1988; son of Rolf and Ingeborg (Fehr) Winter. Education: University of Hamburg, Germany, B.A., 1987; University of Cincinnati, M.A., 1990, Ph.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Bilkent University, 06800 Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, adjunct associate professor of history, 1994-97; Xavier University, Cincinnati, lecturer, beginning 1997; Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, assistant professor and acting chair of department of American culture and literature.

MEMBER:

Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, American Historical Association, American Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, Phi Alpha Theta.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Clarke Chambers travel fellow; Rockefeller grant, 1992; Charles Phelps Taft fellow, University of Cincinnati, 1992-93; Newberry Library fellowship, 1993; Albert J. Beveridge grant, American Historical Association, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Working-men, 1877-1920, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

An historian specializing in U.S. cultural history, particularly that of the so-called "Gilded Age" of the late nineteenth century, Thomas Winter focuses on the early development of the Young Men's Christian Association in Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Workingmen, 1877-1920. Winter examines in particular the joint efforts of the Young Men's Christian Association and the railroad companies to produce young working-class men free of "radical" ideas, such as unionization. At the same time, he explores the notion of masculinity itself, and how it differed across class lines.

Some critics were disappointed in the quality of Winter's writing in Making Men, Making Class. The author's "writing style is ponderous and heavy, leaving the reader to wade through the book rather than enjoy it," wrote Choice reviewer D. R. Jamieson. Times Literary Supplement contributor Patrick Allitt also noted this problem with convoluted language, writing that "Winter's good ideas and entertaining stories shouldn't have to fight their way out from behind such an irritating barrier." More favorably, Frederick Olson concluded in History: Review of New Books that "Winter has provided a useful and believable interpretation of the YMCA and part of its mission over four decades." Although noting that "Winter would have helped his presentation by providing more of the context of the total YMCA operation during the period from 1877-1920," Olson concluded that the author's work has "contributed significantly to the growing literature on American gender history."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, January, 2003, D. R. Jamieson, review of Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Working-men, 1877-1920, p. 890.

History: Review of New Books, fall, 2002, Frederick Olson, review of Making Men, Making Class, p. 9.

Journal of American History, September, 2003, Bruce Dorsey, review of Making Men, Making Class, pp. 664-665.

Journal of Economic History, March, 2003, John Enyeart, review of Making Men, Making Class, pp. 279-280.

Times Literary Supplement, October 25, 2002, Patrick Allitt, "At the YMCA: From Muscular Christians to the Moral Majority in American Politics," pp. 3-4.*