Humanities & Social Sciences
Description
Material Masculinities examines the material and consumer practices of over 1000 men from the middling and upper ranks of eighteenth-century society, c.1650-1850. It draws upon evidence from over 35 archives and museum collections to detail how material objects were integral for men in forming identities and shaping experiences. For men of all social ranks, ages, and geographic locations, material knowledge was imperative for masculine social identities to operate in a commercial society. Before the centralised factory and widespread mass-produced goods, men personalised and repaired their goods; products were shaped by men's attitudes and concerns. Objects were tools in men's identity formation and the exercise of social and gendered power. There was a reciprocal relationship between men and goods in this period; men were active agents of material and commercial change driving product and aesthetic innovation.
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Endorsements
Material Masculinities is the first book-length study dedicated eighteenth-century men's material culture and consumer behaviour. Scholarship has unquestionably that shown men were active participants in a consumer society buying for their persons, their families, and their communities, but how and, importantly, why men engaged so much in the 'consumer revolution' is less clear. The wider significance and repercussions from this consumer and material engagement remain under-explored. This timely monograph examines the complexities of men's material lives as they rose up the social hierarchy, as they matured from boys to men, as they married and established households, as they socialised in town and on the hunting field. The book studies five 'material masculinities' (boyhood, householder, mobile man, discerning consumer, and gentleman sportsman) to highlight the materiality of masculine identity formation and experience as well as the materiality of gendered power. Material Masculinities' examination of these varied masculinities within a rich variety of historical sources, reveals men came to rely on goods to construct and perform a variety of masculine identities and in doing so their material choices, desires, practices, and skills shaped the material and consumer culture of eighteenth-century English. Goods, it argues, helped men know themselves in a period of significant social, cultural, economic, and political change - change that was underpinned by men's active participation in the commercialisation of British society in this pivotal period of English history.
Reviews
Material Masculinities is the first book-length study dedicated eighteenth-century men's material culture and consumer behaviour. Scholarship has unquestionably that shown men were active participants in a consumer society buying for their persons, their families, and their communities, but how and, importantly, why men engaged so much in the 'consumer revolution' is less clear. The wider significance and repercussions from this consumer and material engagement remain under-explored. This timely monograph examines the complexities of men's material lives as they rose up the social hierarchy, as they matured from boys to men, as they married and established households, as they socialised in town and on the hunting field. The book studies five 'material masculinities' (boyhood, householder, mobile man, discerning consumer, and gentleman sportsman) to highlight the materiality of masculine identity formation and experience as well as the materiality of gendered power. Material Masculinities' examination of these varied masculinities within a rich variety of historical sources, reveals men came to rely on goods to construct and perform a variety of masculine identities and in doing so their material choices, desires, practices, and skills shaped the material and consumer culture of eighteenth-century English. Goods, it argues, helped men know themselves in a period of significant social, cultural, economic, and political change - change that was underpinned by men's active participation in the commercialisation of British society in this pivotal period of English history.
Author Biography
Ben Jackson is a British Academy Research Fellow at the University of Manchester
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Manchester University Press
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View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Manchester University Press
- Publication Date April 2025
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781526180605 / 152618060X
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatPrint PDF
- Pages304
- ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Dimensions216 X 138 mm
- Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 6245
- SeriesGender in History
- Reference Code16662
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