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  • New Men: Manliness in Early America
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  • Thomas A. Foster, Mary Beth Norton, Toby L. Ditz
  • 2011
  • Published by: NYU Press
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In 1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur wrote, “What then, is the American, this new man? He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced.” In casting aside their European mores, these pioneers, de Crèvecoeur implied, were the very embodiment of a new culture, society, economy, and political system. But to what extent did manliness shape early America’s character and institutions? And what roles did race, ethnicity, and class play in forming masculinity?
Thomas A. Foster and his contributors grapple with these questions in New Men, showcasing how colonial and Revolutionary conditions gave rise to new standards of British American manliness. Focusing on Indian, African, and European masculinities in British America from earliest Jamestown through the Revolutionary era, and addressing such topics that range from slavery to philanthropy, and from satire to warfare, the essays in this anthology collectively demonstrate how the economic, political, social, cultural, and religious conditions of early America shaped and were shaped by ideals of masculinity.
Contributors: Susan Abram, Tyler Boulware, Kathleen Brown, Trevor Burnard, Toby L. Ditz, Carolyn Eastman, Benjamin Irvin, Janet Moore Lindman, John Gilbert McCurdy, Mary Beth Norton, Ann Marie Plane, Jessica Choppin Roney, and Natalie A. Zacek.

Table of Contents

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  1. Title Page
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  1. Copyright
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. p. xi
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  1. Introduction: New Men: Feminist Histories of Manliness in Early British America
  2. pp. 1-6
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  1. Part I. Settlement
  1. 1. Gentlemen and Soldiers: Competing Visions of Manhood in Early Jamestown
  2. pp. 9-30
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  1. 2. Indian and English Dreams: Colonial Hierarchy and Manly Restraint in Seventeenth-Century New England
  2. pp. 31-47
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  1. Part I . Warfare
  1. 3. “We are men”: Native American and Euroamerican Projections of Masculinity During the Seven Years’ War
  2. pp. 51-70
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  1. 4. Real Men: Masculinity, Spirituality, and Community in Late Eighteenth-Century Cherokee Warfare
  2. pp. 71-91
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  1. Part III. Atlantic
  1. 5. “Blood and Lust”: Masculinity and Sexuality in Illustrated Print Portrayals of Early Pirates of the Caribbean
  2. pp. 95-115
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  1. 6. “Banes of Society” and “Gentlemen of Strong Natural Parts”: Attacking and Defending West Indian Creole Masculinity
  2. pp. 116-133
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  1. 7. “Impatient of Subordination” and “Liable to Sudden Transports of Anger”: White Masculinity and Homosocial Relations with Black Men in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
  2. pp. 134-152
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  1. Part IV. Enactment
  1. 8. “Effective Men” and Early Voluntary Associations in Philadelphia, 1725–177
  2. pp. 155-171
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  1. 9. “Strength of the Lion . . . Arms Like Polished Iron”: Embodying Black Masculinity in an Age of Slavery and Propertied Manhood
  2. pp. 172-192
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  1. Part V. Revolution
  1. 10. Of Eloquence “Manly” and “Monstrous”: The Henpecked Husband in Revolutionary Political Debate, 1774–1775
  2. pp. 195-216
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  1. 11. John Adams and the Choice of Hercules: Manliness and Sexual Virtue in Eighteenth-Century British America
  2. pp. 217-235
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  1. 12. “Play the Man . . . for Your Bleeding Country”: Military Chaplains as Gender Brokers During the American Revolutionary War
  2. pp. 236-255
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  1. Afterword: Contending Masculinities in Early America
  2. pp. 256-267
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  1. About the Contributors
  2. pp. 269-270
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 271-281
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