It is this juxtaposition that allows for further in depth examination. It is interesting to discover the balance culture finds between that of the liberals and the conservatives. .

             Stansell and American Culture/Identity.

             Stansell's book American Moderns looks at a time where free-thinking and engaging in new ideas was blossoming into a lifestyle and movement of the Village. It is a lifestyle and movement that would take hold at other times and in other cities throughout the nation, of course for example, Berkeley, California in the 1960s. Patricia Cohen writes of Stansell's work in defining this culture as, "frames the book around three activities: talking, writing and loving" (2). In this regard, Stansell opens a new perspective as these people as radicals and being vivacious, bold and honest. They embraced free speech, print and sex in a daring way (Cohen 2). Out of everything Stansell discusses, it is the sex that are most absorbing. She weaves together issues of feminism, suffrage, independent careers, birth control and free love in a time where culture was just beginning to become flexible to changes found in society. She discusses how introduction of these new elements into lifestyle and therefore culture changes people's behaviors over time. Women were obtaining the right to vote, working outside the home and their role in culture changed because their role ate home changed. No longer were women married to housework as a career but they had different options. No longer was "she" defined by a man or a husband. As a result of birth control use increasing, so did relationships and moral behavior. No longer were men and women expected to marry in order to have sex. Because of the Bohemian lifestyle, people were not afraid to think different, nor to express themselves through words, both oral and written. Creating art and music was in vogue. Stansell believes that culture is built on talking, writing and loving.