Market Sentiments Middle-Class Market Culture in Nineteenth-Century America

by Nelson, Elizabeth White

• ISBN13: 9781588342904
• ISBN10: 1588342905
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-06
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books

Summary

In this brilliant study, Elizabeth White Nelson challenges a central tenet of 19th-century American history: namely, that men and women lived in separate spheres. Women, supposedly, lived lives focused around hearth and home; men focused on trade and commerce.Market Sentimentsturns this theory on its head, arguing that the market and parlor sentimentality were closely intertwined for both men and women. Scholars have long seen 19th-century sentimentalism as a reaction to the rapid expansion of the marketplace, which some feared would threaten their traditional values of thrift, independence, and equality of economic opportunity. But Nelson demonstrates that the rise of sentimentalism and the marketplace were fundamentally linked and, indeed, fueled each other. The invention of Valentine's Day (called "this important Business of Love" by one 19th-century observer) during this era was a prime example of how emotional rhetoric could be economically pragmatic. Not only did people purchase sentimental objects for their parlorsbrass candlesticks as spin-off products fromUncle Tom's Cabin, for instancebut they also used sentimental language to explain the profound changes in American culture. Through her voluminous and ingenious use of sources such as literary bestsellers, fashion magazines, hair jewelry, and the decoration of Victorian parlors, Elizabeth White Nelson shows that, for 19th-century Americans, hearth, home, and the pursuit of cash came together in one big sentimental enterprise.

Author Biography

Elizabeth White Nelson lives in Las Vegas with her husband and three children and teaches American history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was previously a Fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Good Motives: The Sentiments of Middle-Class Market Culture	p. 21
Telling Tales: Narratives of a Moral Market	p. 40
Cents and Sensibility: The Language of Business in Godey's Lady's Book	p. 61
The Economy of Domestic Happiness	p. 81
This Land of Precarious Fortunes: Economic Advice for Women	p. 106
Fancy That: The Pleasure and Profit of Fancywork	p. 131
Charitable Calculations: Fancywork, Charity, and the Sentimental Market	p. 153
Roses Are Read: The Symbolic Economy of Valentine's Day	p. 171
A Tempest in a Teacup: Spinoff Products in the Sentimental Marketplace	p. 214
Epilogue: The Smooth Mischiefs of Sentiment	p. 241
Acknowledgments	p. 248
Notes	p. 253
Index	p. 285
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