Sons of Liberty

by Pugh, David G.

• ISBN13: 9780313239342
• ISBN10: 0313239347
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1984-02-01
• Publisher: Praeger Pub Text

Summary

David G. Pugh examines the evolution and shape of the cult of masculinity in nineteenth-century America. The author contends that the men of the time had been cut loose from their traditional cultural moorings and required a leader with strength, endurance, and bravado. They sought these mythical Jacksonian qualities as a defense against aimless drifting and the anonymity and real dangers of the frontier. Attitudes of nineteenth-century men toward women and heterosexuality are revealed as a web of sexual anxieties, repression, and sublimation that fostered the conviction that manliness could best be achieved through independence from women. Pugh then assesses the impact of the Jacksonian legacy on the latter half of the century, and demonstrates that our modern conceptions of manliness and masculinity are deeply rooted in nineteenth-century prototypes.

Table of Contents

Copyright Acknowledgments	p. v
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
The Jacksonian Mystique	p. 3
The Female Foil	p. 45
The Jacksonian Legacy	p. 93
He-Man Magazines and the American Super- Male: A Case Study in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture	p. 129
Notes	p. 155
Selected Bibliography	p. 171
Index	p. 179
About the Author	p. 186
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