In this Book
- Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Series: New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History
summary
In fiction, drama, poems, and pamphlets, nineteenth-century reformers told the familiar tale of the decent young man who fell victim to demon rum: Robbed of his manhood by his first drink, he slid inevitably into an abyss of despair and depravity. In its discounting of the importance of free will, argues Elaine Frantz Parsons, this story led to increased emphasis on environmental influences as root causes of drunkenness, poverty, and moral corruption—thus inadvertently opening the door to state intervention in the form of Prohibition. Parsons also identifies the emergence of a complementary narrative of "female invasion"—womanhood as a moral force powerful enough to sway choice. As did many social reformers, women temperance advocates capitalized on notions of feminine virtue and domestic responsibilities to create a public role for themselves. Entering a distinctively male space—the saloon—to rescue fathers, brothers, and sons, women at the same time began to enter another male bastion—politics—again justifying their transgression in terms of rescuing the nation's manhood.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xiv
- Introduction
- pp. 1-17
- 1 Volition
- pp. 18-52
- 3 Contentment
- pp. 75-99
- 4 Seduction
- pp. 100-125
- 5 Invasion
- pp. 126-156
- 6 Resolution
- pp. 157-181
- Conclusion
- pp. 182-184
- Essay on Sources
- pp. 227-234
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421401690
Related ISBN(s)
9780801871665, 9780801892561
MARC Record
OCLC
606973034
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No