The Perfect Fence
Subtitle: Untangling the Meanings of Barbed Wire
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: Nov 15, 2017
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9781623495824
Description: In The Perfect Fence, Lyn Ellen Bennett and Scott Abbott explore the multiple uses and meanings of barbed wire, a technological innovation that contributes to America's shift from a pastoral ideal to an industrial one. They survey the vigorous public debate over the benign or "infernal" fence, investigate legislative attempts to ban or regulate wire fences as a result of public outcry, and demonstrate how the industry responded to ameliorate the image of its barbed product. Because of the rich metaphorical possibilities suggested by a fence that controls through pain, barbed wire developed into an important motif in works of literature from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Early advertisements proclaimed that barbed wire was "the perfect fence," keeping "the ins from being outs, and the outs from being ins." Bennett and Abbott conclude that while barbed wire is not the perfect fence touted by manufacturers, it is indeed a meaningful thing that continues to influence American identities.--INSIDE FLAP.
Notes: Source title: The Perfect Fence: Untangling the Meanings of Barbed Wire (Connecting the Greater West Series)