Title: A Man's Place
Description: John Tosh shows how profoundly men's lives were conditioned by the Victorian ideal, and how they negotiated its many contradictions.

Tosh begins by looking at the experience of boyhood, married life, sex and fatherhood in the early decades of the nineteenth century - illustrated by case-studies representing a variety of backgrounds - and then contrasts this with the lives of the late Victorian generation. By the 1870s, men were becoming less enchanted with the pleasures of home. Once the rights of wives were extended by law and society, marriage seemed less attractive, and the bachelor world of clubland flourished as never before.

The Victorians declared that to be fully human and fully masculine, men must be active participants in domestic life. In exposing the contradictions in this ideal, they defined the climate for gender politics in the next century.
Subjects: Middle class families, Men, Sex role, Masculinity, History, Family, great britain, Men, history, Middle class, great britain, Identity, Social life and customs, Hommes, Histoire, Masculinité, Rôle selon le sexe, Familles de la classe moyenne, SOCIAL SCIENCE, Gender Studies, Mannelijkheid, Gezin, Middenklassen, 19th century british history - victorian era, Men's studies, Family - sociocultural aspects, British history - social aspects, Middle class, Sex role - europe, Social aspects, Gender Identity
Places: England
Time periods: 19th century