American Manhood: Transformations In Masculinity From The Revolution To The Modern Era

Author:   E.Anthony Rotundo
Publisher:   Basic Books
Edition:   Reprinted edition
ISBN:  

9780465001699


Pages:   396
Publication Date:   13 May 1994
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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American Manhood: Transformations In Masculinity From The Revolution To The Modern Era


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Overview

In the first comprehensive history of American manhood, E. Anthony Rotundo sweeps away the groundless assumptions and myths that inform the current fascination with men's lives. Opposing the views of men's movement leaders and best-selling authors who maintain that manliness is eternal and unchanging, Rotundo stresses that our concept of manhood is man-made and that, like any human invention, it has a history. American Manhood is a fascinating account of how our understanding of what it means to be a man has changed over time.

Full Product Details

Author:   E.Anthony Rotundo
Publisher:   Basic Books
Imprint:   Basic Books
Edition:   Reprinted edition
Dimensions:   Width: 12.80cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 20.20cm
Weight:   0.424kg
ISBN:  

9780465001699


ISBN 10:   0465001696
Pages:   396
Publication Date:   13 May 1994
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

* Introduction: Toward a History of American Manhood * Community to Individual: The Transformation of Manhood at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century * Boy Culture * Male Youth Culture * Youth and Male Intimacy * The Development of Mens Attitudes toward Women * Love, Sex, and Courtship * Marriage * Work and Identity * The Male Culture of the Workplace * Passionate Manhood: A Changing Standard of Masculinity * Roots of Change: The Women Without and the Woman Within * Epilogue: Manhood in the Twentieth Century

Reviews

A fascinating, accessible, and meticulous piece of scholarship, this study of changing conceptions of manhood breaks new ground in uncovering the internal struggles and shifting paradigms that have informed American men's understanding of themselves. Borrowing the innovative techniques of women's history and gender studies, Rotundo (History/Phillips Academy) shines a powerful light on the diaries, letters, and institutions of white, northern, middle-class men. From a Puritan society that conceived of men largely as ranked members of a community, America, he says, was transformed into a place where a man was an individual who created his own place and status. The qualities that were valued in a man were likewise transformed, from an ideal that called for the suppression of aggressive, competitive urges to an image of manliness that valued nothing more. While boys were once seen as separate from men - at times, more like females; later, as a host of antisocial impulses that need to be suppressed - by the end of the 19th century, men (with Theodore Roosevelt as paradigm) were seen as overgrown boys, their boyish impulses being their best part. Similarly, men's relation to women, while never abjuring the underlying framework of gender spheres, has repeatedly shifted to buttress men's superiority. Sexuality, too, Rotundo says, has changed profoundly, and not always in ways we would think: The 18th century lacked a true concept of homosexuality, allowing adult male friends to spend the night in each others' arms - an act inconceivable to most contemporary heterosexuals. While the slice of society Rotundo examines is narrow, what he reveals goes deep. A pioneering work. (Kirkus Reviews)


Author Information

E. Anthony Rotundo teaches history and develops programs on race and gender at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

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