The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550–1850

Copertina anteriore
University of California Press, 21 mag 2002 - 313 pagine
In 1666, King Charles II felt it necessary to reform Englishmen's dress by introducing a fashion that developed into the three-piece suit. We learn what inspired this royal revolution in masculine attire--and the reasons for its remarkable longevity--in David Kuchta's engaging and handsomely illustrated account. Between 1550 and 1850, Kuchta says, English upper- and middle-class men understood their authority to be based in part upon the display of masculine character: how they presented themselves in public and demonstrated their masculinity helped define their political legitimacy, moral authority, and economic utility. Much has been written about the ways political culture, religion, and economic theory helped shape ideals and practices of masculinity. Kuchta allows us to see the process working in reverse, in that masculine manners and habits of consumption in a patriarchal society contributed actively to people's understanding of what held England together.

Kuchta shows not only how the ideology of modern English masculinity was a self-consciously political and public creation but also how such explicitly political decisions and values became internalized, personalized, and naturalized into everyday manners and habits.
 

Sommario

1 Conspicuous Constructions
1
2 The Old Sartorial Regime 15501688
17
3 The SeventeenthCentury Fashion Crisis
51
4 The ThreePiece Suit
77
5 Masculinity in the Age of Chivalry 16881832
91
6 The Making of the SelfMade Man 17501850
133
7 Inconspicuous Consumption
173
Notes
179
Bibliography
253
Index
295
Copyright

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Informazioni sull'autore (2002)

David Kuchta is Adjunct Professor of History at the University of New England.

Informazioni bibliografiche