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OverviewLevelling the playing fieldLife in the Canadian countryside at the turn of the twentieth century is often generalized as insular, backwards, and defined by drudgery. These assumptions are redressed in Rebecca Beausaert’s Pursuing Play, which highlights the complexity of small-town culture through a lively examination of women’s efforts to negotiate space for themselves and their leisure pursuits. Amply illustrated, Pursuing Play draws on diaries, letters, newspapers, and census records to investigate women’s recreational activities in three southern Ontario towns—Dresden, Tillsonburg, and Elora—between 1870–1914. Though women’s recreational choices were restricted by pervasive ideas about propriety, Beausaert reveals how they increasingly spearheaded both formal and informal clubs, events, and social gatherings, and integrated them into their daily lives. In telling the story of what small-town women did for fun while navigating social hierarchies, nurturing ties of kinship and friendship, and advancing community development, Pursuing Play adds a new dimension to Canadian histories of gender, leisure, and popular culture. Encompassing public and private pastimes, the growth of sports, the phenomenon of “armchair travelling,” and how easily recreation can slip from reputable to disreputable, this rich study uncovers how gender, class, and ethnicity shaped the nature and scope of women’s leisure in small-town Ontario and beyond. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Rebecca BeausaertPublisher: University of Manitoba Press Imprint: University of Manitoba Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.408kg ISBN: 9781772840773ISBN 10: 1772840777 Pages: 277 Publication Date: 06 September 2024 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationRebecca Beausaert is an adjunct professor in the Department of History, University of Guelph, and co-founder and co-director of the “What Canada Ate” website. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |