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Book Cover
E-book
Author Wilson, Lisa, 1957-

Title Ye heart of a man : the domestic life of men in colonial New England / Lisa Wilson
Published New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, [1999]
©1999

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 255 pages)
Contents Introduction -- To be of use -- A "business for life" -- "It will not injure you" : men and courtship -- Usefulness -- A husband "well-ordered" -- Provider -- "Ye heart of a father" -- The specter of uselessness -- Widower -- "Like an armed man" : retirement and manhood -- Conclusion
Summary This book is the first to investigate the everyday lives of men in prerevolutionary America. It looks at men and women in colonial Massachusetts and Connecticut, comparing their experiences in order to understand the domestic environment in which they spent most of their time. Lisa Wilson tells wonderful stories of colonial New England men, addressing the challenges of youth, the responsibilities of adulthood, and the trials of aging. She finds that ideas about patriarchy or nineteenth-century notions of separate spheres for men and women fail to explain the world that these early New England men describe. Patriarchal power, although certainly real enough, was tempered by notions of obligation, duty, and affection. These men created their identities in a multigendered, domestic world. A man was defined by his usefulness in this domestic context; as part of an interdependent family, his goal was service to family and community, not the self-reliant independence of the next century's "self-made" man
Bibliography Includes chapter notes with bibliographical references (pages 189-240), and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Men -- New England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
Sex role -- New England -- History -- 18th century
Families -- New England -- 18th century
Man-woman relationships -- New England -- History -- 18th century
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Gender Studies.
Families
Man-woman relationships
Manners and customs
Men -- Social life and customs
Sex role
Mannen.
Dagelijks leven.
SUBJECT New England -- Social life and customs -- To 1775. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85091279
Subject New England
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0585384401
9780585384405
Other Titles Domestic life of men in colonial New England