Men Making Home: Masculinity and Domesticity in Eighteenth‐Century Britain

Eighteenth‐century England is, for many scholars, the time and place where modern domesticity was invented; the point at which ‘home’ became a key concept sustained by new literary imaginings and new social practices. But as gendered individuals, and certainly compared to women, men are notable for their absence in accounts of the eighteenth‐century domestic interior. In this essay, I examine the relationship between constructs of masculinity and meanings of home. During the eighteenth century, ‘home’ came to mean more than one's dwelling; it became a multi‐faceted state of being, encompassing the emotional, physical, moral and spatial. Masculinity intersected with domesticity at all levels and stages in its development. The nature of men's engagements with home were understood through a model of ‘oeconomy’, which brought together the home and the world, primarily through men's activities. Indeed, this essay proposes that attention to how this multi‐faceted eighteenth‐century ‘home’ was made in relation to masculinity shifts our understanding of home as a private and feminine space opposed to an ‘outside’ and public world.     

Men Want Something Real: Frank Buchman and Anglo-American College Religion in the 1920s

In 1925 a Princeton University alumnus told a group of faculty that "men want something real." He felt that students at Princeton and other universities were trapped in institutions historian George Marsden later described as increasingly secularized and secularizing. Their education was too theoretical and their Christianity was too conventional. Caught in such a place, young men wanted some kind of real-life experience, unmediated by books or instructors. They wanted excitement and intensity, the kind their predecessors found in the Great War. In place of immorality, or conventional Christianity, evangelist Frank Buchman organized a cell group movement where men could get an exciting religious experience. He repackaged Anglo-American evangelicalism so it would appeal to modern young people. The movement began in America, but soon included elite college students in Britain as well. It focused particularly on "key men," vital to Buchman's goal of remaking the world.     

The United States and Latin American Revolution in the 1960s

Book reviewed:
Michael D. Gambone. Capturing the Revolution: The United States, Central America, and Nicaragua.     

The decrease in socioeconomic differences in mortality from 1920 to 2000 in the United States and England

This study found that the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on mortality decreased steadily during the twentieth century. It examined trends in age-specific adult mortality rates for employed men and infants in a number of social classes based on occupation in England and Wales and for black, white, and immigrant nationality groups of men, women, and infants in the United States. Both countries experienced continuing decreases in mortality rates and narrowing of SES differences in mortality rates from 1920 to the end of the century. Most of the decrease and narrowing in England and Wales occurred before the establishment of the National Health Service and the unprecedented improvements in clinical and preventive medicine after midcentury. Current cancer mortality rates in both countries show no consistent relationship with SES. The very low mortality rates of some low SES immigrant nationality groups in the United States throughout the century demonstrate that other social factors can have a greater effect on health than SES.     

Curing Mind and Body in the Heart of the Canadian Rockies: Empire,Sexual Scandal and the Reclamation of Masculinity, 1880s–1920s

Based on a reading of published writings and a series of private letters and medical records, this article explores the life and career of the mountaineer Sir James Outram (1864–1925) in order to argue for a new, more psychologically oriented conceptualisation of the relationship between empire, masculinity and male sexuality. At its core is an attempt to understand both the sexual transgressions that forced Outram to flee Britain for Canada in 1900 and the impact that his travels across the Atlantic and his physical activities in the Rocky Mountains had on his gender and sexual subjectivities. As an intervention into the history of same‐sex desire and behaviour in Britain and the Empire, this piece explores Outram's complicated relationship to the predominant sexual categories of the day and the masculine ideals that held considerable sway in the late imperial period. It also documents the Outram family's interactions with members of the emerging psychiatric profession.     

近代地方文化的跨地域性——20世纪二三十年代粤剧、粤乐和粤曲在上海

上海自开埠以来,吸引了大批来自广东的商人,他们在沪上陆续建立起各种同乡、同业和其他文娱组织,赞助举办各种粤剧、粤乐和粤曲活动。1920—1930年代,粤剧、粤乐和粤曲在上海一方面吸纳了其他剧种和音乐文类的特色而在许多方面发生了关键性的变化;另一方面,其本来不一定十分明显的地域标签,也在这种特殊的情境中得到强化。当时粤乐的创作和实践活动,更是在一个探索何谓“国乐”的大语境中进行的。此外,在上海兴起的时代曲,也为粤曲注入了新的调子,至30—40年代,新兴的国语时代曲被大量地引进粤曲之中;而粤曲的粤方言特色,也在这个时候得到前所未有的发挥。从20—30年代粤剧、粤乐和粤曲在上海的发展可见,近代中国“地方文化”的特性,往往是在一个跨地域的情景中塑造和凸显的。     

20世纪60年代以来美国女性单亲家庭变迁初探

20世纪60年代以来,美国女性单亲家庭数量骤增,引发大规模道德批判风潮,政治倾向日渐保守,政府福利政策随之紧缩。综观其发展历程可知,两性经济格局的变更,婚姻与性观念的嬗变,单身母亲自有的婚育价值观,政府公共政策的双重作用,合力推动了美国女性单亲家庭的群体扩张。就所占比重和贫困程度而言,黑人女性单亲家庭是尤其值得关注的群体。对以母子为基本关系单位的家庭模式的认可度,以及黑人社区中适婚男性数量上的匮乏,是美国黑人家庭中女性单亲家庭比重较大的特定因素。