"Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in AmericaOxford University Press, 1987 M10 1 - 304 páginas Housewives constitute a large section of the population, yet they have received very little attention, let alone respect. Glenna Matthews, who herself spent many years as "just a housewife" before becoming a scholar of American history, sets out to redress this imbalance. While the male world of work has always received the most respect, Matthews maintains that widespread reverence for the home prevailed in the nineteenth century. The early stages of industrialization made possible a strong tradition of cooking, baking, and sewing that gave women great satisfaction and a place in the world. Viewed as the center of republican virtue, the home also played an important religious role. Examining novels, letters, popular magazines, and cookbooks, Matthews seeks to depict what women had and what they have lost in modern times. She argues that the culture of professionalism in the late nineteenth century and the culture of consumption that came to fruition in the 1920s combined to kill off the "cult of domesticity." This important, challenging book sheds new light on a central aspect of human experience: the essential task of providing a society's nurture and daily maintenance. |
Contenido
| 3 | |
The Golden Age of Domesticity | 35 |
Domestic Feminism and the World Outside the Home | 66 |
Toward an Industrialized Home | 92 |
Darwinism and Domesticity The Impact of Evolutionary Theory on the Status of the Home | 116 |
The Housewife and the Home Economist | 145 |
Domesticity and the Culture of Consumption | 172 |
Naming the Problem | 197 |
Afterword | 223 |
Notes | 227 |
Appendix | 263 |
Index | 269 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
"Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America Glenna Matthews Vista previa limitada - 1989 |
"Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America Glenna Matthews Vista previa limitada - 1989 |
"Just a Housewife": The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America Glenna Matthews Sin vista previa disponible - 1987 |
Términos y frases comunes
advertising advice American women antebellum Antoinette Brown Blackwell argued Aunt baking began Boston Bushnell Catharine Beecher Charlotte Perkins Gilman child Christine Frederick cookbooks cookery cooking craft tradition created cult of domesticity culture of consumption Darwin discussion domestic feminism domestic novel domestic sphere early Ellen emotional evolution example fact female feminism feminist Friedan Gilman girls Godey's Harriet Beecher Stowe History home economics home economists Horace Bushnell household housekeeping housewife housewife's housewives housework Huck human husband Ibid ideology impact important industry kitchen Ladies Home Journal Lake Placid late nineteenth century lives male marriage married Mary middle-class moral Moreover mother Nonetheless Oxford Univ political Press problem recipes reform responsibilities role Sarah Josepha Hale scientific servants sexes sexual social society suffrage Susan thought ticity tion twentieth century Uncle Tom's Cabin values Ward wife woman Woman's Journal writing wrote York young
Pasajes populares
Página 63 - They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools.
Página 120 - The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman - whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands.
Página 121 - In order that woman should reach the same standard as man, she ought, when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perseverance, and to have her reason and imagination exercised to the highest point; and then she would probably transmit these qualities chiefly to her adult daughters.
Página 39 - The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive, also, of the long lapse of mortal life, and accompanying vicissitudes that have passed within.
Página 239 - Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790-1865 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Nancy A.
Página 80 - But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.
Página 253 - See Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974), as well as Karl Marx, Capital (New York: International Publishers, 1967), vol. 1. 14. See Susan Himmelweit and Simon Mohun, "Domestic Labour and Capital," Cambridge Journal of Economics 1, no.
Página 79 - I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
Página 50 - Now, Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is!
Página 136 - Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two : hours' intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live.