Title: Ye heart of a man
First published: 1999
Description: This book is the first to investigate the everyday lives of men in prerevolutionary America. It looks at men and women in colonial Massachusetts and Connecticut, comparing their experiences in order to understand the domestic environment in which they spent most of their time.

Lisa Wilson tells wonderful stories of colonial New England men, addressing the challenges of youth, the responsibilities of adulthood, and the trials of aging. She finds that ideas about patriarchy or nineteenth-century notions of separate spheres for men and women fail to explain the world that these early New England men describe. Patriarchal power, although certainly real enough, was tempered by notions of obligation, duty, and affection.

These men created their identities in a multigendered, domestic world. A man was defined by his usefulness in this domestic context; as part of an interdependent family, his goal was service to family and community, not the self-reliant independence of the next century's "self-made" man.
Subjects: Social life and customs, Man-woman relationships, Family, Men, Sex role, History, Families, Mannen, Dagelijks leven, Manners and customs, United states, civilization, to 1783, Men, history, New england, history, colonial period, ca. 1600-1775, Interpersonal relations, Mœurs et coutumes, Hommes, Rôle selon le sexe, Histoire, Familles, Relations entre hommes et femmes, SOCIAL SCIENCE, Gender Studies
Places: New England
Time periods: 18th century, To 1775
LC classification: F7 .C36 1999