Gender Rules Identity and Empire in Historical Perspective

Growing directly out of the experiences of a team of historians at Washington State University who designed a new foundational course for WSU's common requirements, the Roots of Contemporary Issues series is built on the premise that students will be better at facing current and future challenges, no matter their major or career path, if they are capable of addressing controversial and pressing issues in mature, reasoned ways using evidence, critical thinking, and clear written and oral communication skills. To help students achieve these goals, each title in the Roots of Contemporary Issues series argues that we need both a historical understanding and an appreciation of the ways in which humans have been interconnected with places around the world for decades and even centuries.

Much of the world's politics revolve around questions about gender and imperialism, including the relationship between gender and empire over the last five hundred years. There are no easy answers to these questions, but the decisions that all of us make about them will have tremendous consequences for individuals and for the planet in the future.

Gender Rules introduces students to history from the point of view of controversial and pressing issues they already know about and many of whom already feel invested in. Each chapter includes both Western and non-Western content, allowing readers to understand the deep past as connected to the present, and to see that the West has interacted with non-Western regions for centuries.

List of Maps/Images
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Series Introduction: Connecting the Past and Present

INTRODUCTION: Gender and Imperialism

CHAPTER ONE: Law and Religion in Spanish Latin America
Religion: The Introduction of Catholicism
Government: Race, Class, Gender, and the Family
Work: The Impacts of the Mita/Repartimiento System
Nonbinary Genders: Two-Spirit Peoples
Conclusion
Further Reading

CHAPTER TWO: Gender and Commerce in the Atlantic World
European Manufacturing for the Slave Trade
Impacts of the Atlantic Slave Trade in Africa
The British Caribbean: Jamaica
The end of the Slave Trade: England and Abolition
Conclusion
Further Reading

CHAPTER THREE: Gender and Imperial Spaces in French Algeria and Indochina
The City Itself: Algiers and Hanoi
Tropical Respite: Dalat Hill Station
Domestic Spaces: The Harem and the European Home
Conclusion
Further Reading

CHAPTER FOUR: Gender, Attire, and Nationalist Movements in India and Egypt
The Body Itself
Covering the Body: Clothing
The Top of the Body: Headwear
Conclusion
Further Reading

CHAPTER FIVE: Gender, Soft Power, and the Western in Cold War Europe
The Archetypal Cowboy
Westerns West and East Germany
The Role of Women in Westerns
Conclusion
Further Reading

CONCLUSION: A Postgender World?

Index
About the Cover