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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read For Those Studying 19th Century America,
By cwbookworm (PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-class Culture in America, 1830-1870 (Yale Historical Publications) (Paperback)
Author Karen Halttunen does an excellent job in her study of 19th Century Middle Class Culture in America. CONFIDENCE MEN AND PAINTED WOMEN is a must for both scholars and living historians alike. Halttunen's work vividly details the social and cultural development of 19th Century Middle Class America, their etiquette, values and mores. Taken from etiquette books, manuals and magazines of the era, Halttunen's study covers the sentimental culture of fashion, etiquette, hypocrisy of the time and even mourning the dead. She focuses on the time period of 1830-1870. Halttunen has really done her homework on this topic, and she gives new insight to a bygone era.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great 19th Century U.S. Social History,
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This review is from: Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-class Culture in America, 1830-1870 (Yale Historical Publications) (Paperback)
In Confidence Men and Painted Women, USC historian Karen Halttunen examines the social norms of middle class Americans from the years 1830-1870. She shows that for much of the nineteenth century, Americans viewed hypocrisy as a direct threat to the democratic process. They considered insincerity a "symbolic expression of moral and political decay in America." The possibility of upward or downward social mobility prompted this identity crisis for many middle class Americans. In their desire to appear sincere, urban Americans looked to identify themselves in opposition to confidence men and painted women. Confidence men were familiar figures in 19th century literature; these outwardly friendly men often corrupted young city newcomers. Painted women resided in parlor rooms; their use of makeup disguised the proof of insincere lifestyle. Both figures represented insincerity in domestic and social spheres. There was a fine line between proper attire and the insincere looks of fashion.
Both men and women strove for sincerity in their appearance. In doing so, there arose an inherent contradiction to the ideals of 19th century behavior manuals: namely, that by focusing on the correct attire and etiquette to appear sincere renders the participant insincere. The rest of Halttunen's book looks at society's recognition of this contradiction, the practice of sincere outward appearances in parlor rooms, on the street, and even at funerals. She concludes that ultimately public appearance reconciled with personal insincerity. In short, by the Gilded Age, Americans had not only made peace with the division between ostensible outward appearance and supposed internal sincerity, but had learned to accept this contradiction as a social norm.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very worthwhile read,
By Vicky Oliver (New York City) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-class Culture in America, 1830-1870 (Yale Historical Publications) (Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed this account of American middle class culture between 1830-1870. Well-researched, well written, and fun to read, I thought it was a great lesson in American civilization, and I also appreciated all of the references to popular culture during that time. The author begins the book with an arresting premise and follows through beautifully. A must read for anyone interested in broadening their base of historical knowledge.
Vicky Oliver Author, Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
During the first half of the nineteenth century, unprecedented numbers of young men were leaving their rural homes and families to seek work in the booming cities of industrializing America. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sentimental dress, fatal cosmetic, antebellum advice literature, sentimental typology, antebellum advice manuals, genteel performance, parlor conduct, fashionable hypocrisy, sentimental critique, sincere ideal, proper mourning attire, liminal men, sentimental demand, social acquaintanceship, mourning literature, false etiquette, parlor theatricals, parlor society, preindustrial methods, success mythology, sentimental ideal, social formalism, polite social intercourse, urban stranger, sentimental culture Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Godey's Lady's Book, New York, New England, Civil War, Margaret Howard, Henry Ward Beecher, American Revolution, Francis Grund, Erving Goffman, United States, William Alcott, Age of Jackson, Going Into Mourning, Lyn Lofland, May Day, Norbert Elias, Victorian America New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
During the first half of the nineteenth century, unprecedented numbers of young men were leaving their rural homes and families to seek work in the booming cities of industrializing America. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sentimental dress, fatal cosmetic, antebellum advice literature, sentimental typology, antebellum advice manuals, genteel performance, parlor conduct, fashionable hypocrisy, sentimental critique, sincere ideal, proper mourning attire, liminal men, sentimental demand, social acquaintanceship, mourning literature, false etiquette, parlor theatricals, parlor society, preindustrial methods, success mythology, sentimental ideal, social formalism, polite social intercourse, urban stranger, sentimental culture Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Godey's Lady's Book, New York, New England, Civil War, Margaret Howard, Henry Ward Beecher, American Revolution, Francis Grund, Erving Goffman, United States, William Alcott, Age of Jackson, Going Into Mourning, Lyn Lofland, May Day, Norbert Elias, Victorian America New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- The Feminization of American Culture by Ann Douglas on 5 pages
- Democracy in America (Signet Classics) by Alexis de Tocqueville on 5 pages
- The Decline of American Gentility by Stow Parsons on 4 pages
- The Positive Thinkers by Donald Meyer on 4 pages
- Costume in Detail: Women's Dress 1730-1930 by Nancy Bradfield on 4 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- Making Men, Making Class: The YMCA and Workingmen, 1877-1920 by Thomas Winter on 10 pages
- The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York (Studies in the History of Sexuality) by Amy Gilman Srebnick on 4 pages
- The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent by Thomas A. Tweed on 4 pages
- Public Sentiments: Structures of Feeling in Nineteenth-Century American Literature by Glenn Hendler on 4 pages
- Dark Eden: The Swamp in Nineteenth-Century American Culture (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) by David Miller in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
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