A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender

By Donald Yacovone

Book Overview

For decades, women's history has been one of the most dynamic fields in all of American history. More recently, the study of manhood has drawn the attention of scholars, students, and general readers. Despite the obvious intersections of female and male gender roles, the nineteenth-century doctrine of "separate spheres" has dominated historical inquiry. The shared experiences and complementary lives of men and women have rarely been considered. This important new anthology, reflecting recent trends in the history of men and women, calls for the reintegration of the study of gender.
Only by focusing on the similarities, as well as the differences, in the lives of men and women can we achieve a fully representative portrait. The essays in this exciting collection, most commissioned exclusively for this book, cover American history from colonial times to the present, representing multicultural and interdisciplinary scholarship at its most persuasive.
Combining compelling subjects and thorough research, the contributors represent an appealing mix of established authors and new scholars. A lively blend of experience and innovation, A Shared Experiencemarks an important step in the development of American history and the burgeoning field of gender studies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814796834
• ISBN13: 9780814796832
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Surprises around every corner!

History, a plain recitation of facts and biography? Not in this book, an anthology of papers on the navigation of gender in the United States. It may sound of limited interest to anyone who's not a scholar in gender studies or history, but that's where you'd be missing out on a fuller picture of our early stateside ancestors. Of particular note is Lisa Wilson's "A Marriage 'Well-Ordered'," an intimate and at times touching analysis of a colonial marriage; Anya Jabour's "The Language of Love," a look at a love affair between husband and wife in the antebellum period; and Donald Yacovone's "Surpassing the Love of Women," about the love of fraternal brotherhood during the Victorian era. Few authors are able to skillfully present such a varied and complete picture of interpersonal relationships and intimacy, and editors McCall and Yacovone seem to have collected them all here. Certainly it should demolish the stereotypes we maintain of repressed Victorians and cold, distant Puritan marriages; if we're ever going to be able to make a go of intimacy in the present day, it might help to know where American love really comes from.