Literature and historians alike look to the past to define the present. In many ways, one can look at the defining moments in American history to understand the foundation in which today's culture exists. This paper asks one to examine the specific period of time after the Civil War and how the men and women born of these decades until the First World War created a new American culture. This involves looking at the work of historians like Christine Stansell in order to gain a better understanding of the pillars and forces that shaped American culture at the time. .

             It is apparent that times were changing drastically from the Victorian era to the Modern era. People's morals and values were changing as writers and artists pushed the envelope and introduced new ideas into the mainstream. It can also be assumed that these "new ideas and values" indeed existed prior to the Bohemian lifestyle of the Village in New York City but that like many things in American culture were not mainstream or discussed. One can look at technology, war and America's place in the global economy today and be awed at the progress made in such a short time period. It is fair to assume that due to the Industrial Revolution that lifestyles were changing from agrarian to urban. New technologies like electricity and the combustible engine were making life easier, making work easier, giving people more free time to explore, be more active in day-to-day life. This allowed for a new generation of thinkers, trailblazers who put new issues within the mind set of the everyday American. This was the birth of liberalism and what conservatives would label counter-culture. For the sake of understanding the time period better, this paper also asks one to examine Whinesburg, Ohio; the works of Sherwood Anderson to see if any factors from the Bohemian lifestyle are present as pillars of American culture in his work.