Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Essays on Gender, Family and Empire

Manliness and Masculinities presents an innovative series of studies in the cultural and social history of nineteenth-century Britain. The book documents the rapid emergence of a new and increasingly important field, and takes forward the definition of this new field. John Tosh addresses the big issues of theory and periodisation, exploring the relationship between masculinity and patriarchy, and between men's public role and their emotional and domestic lives. These insights inform his sensitive treatment of the history of the Victorian family. In the final section of the book John Tosh re-examines some of the major themes of British imperial history, arguing that the empire needs to be seen as a specifically male enterprise answering to masculine aspirations and insecurities. The history of masculinity does not deal with a neglected group. It potentially modifies our view of every field of history in which men are the principal subject-matter most of written history. History is still predominantly about men, and this book shows what a difference it makes to our understanding of history to put their masculinity under scrutiny. This book is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in the history of the family and of the British Empire, as well as Gender Studies. JOHN TOSH is Professor of History at Roehampton University. He has been at the forefront of British work on the history of masculinities for the last 15 years. He is author of A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England (1999) and co-editor of Manful Assertions: Masculinities in Britainsince 1800 (1991).