Describe the literary and cultural life of the period including the widespread trend towards realism

Darwinism lead to widespread trend towards realism.

Explanation:

After Civil War new trend came in US during 1800 The people started to focus on realism. Romanticism as well as optimism ended. The questions that was asked previously the answer was given in a religious way but after the Civil War people now mainly focused on realism , they tried to get answer in a scientific way.

Literature played huge role , people tried to connect things with literature so that it becomes realistic. Now they stopped believing the fact that God always has a plan whatever he does its always good but now people mainly tried to find the cause in a more scientific way.

1960: wilma rudolph was the first woman to win three olympic gold medals in track and field at one olympic games. she was an american sprinter from tennessee, she was acclaimed the fastest woman in the world. she was among the most visible black women in america and abroad. she became a role model for black and female athletes. she was also known as a civil rights and women right's pioneer.

1973: billy jean king is an american former number one tennis player. she represented the united states in the federal cup and the wightman cup. for three years she was the usa's captain in the federation cup. she defends gender equality and has been a pioneer for equal and social justice. at the age of 29, she won "the battle of sexes" tennis match against the 55 year old bobby riggs. she was also the founder of women's tennis association and the women's sports foundation.  

1983: tamara mckinney becomes the first american female skier to win the alpine world cup overall championship top. she was the only american to hold that title for a quarter century until 2008.

1992: manon rhéaume, from canada,   becomes the only woman to start in a national hockey league game in an exhibition game for the tampa bay lightning . she played on the canada women's national ice hockey team winning gold medals in 1992 and 1994. and silver medals in 1998. manon marked the first time a woman appeared in a regular season professional game with her first appearance against the salt lake golden eagles.

2013: serena williams won 78 of 82 matches at the age of 31. she is an american professional tennis player. she reached the number 1 ranking for the first time on july, 8, 2002. at the age of 16, she played against karsten braasch the battle of sexes. she was the highest paid female athlete in 2016. she is a unicef ambassador .

i'm asking the same thing i asked this other cat all of