Handwriting in America: A Cultural History [Paperback]

Professor Tamara Plakins Thornton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300074417 | ISBN-13: 978-0300074413 | Publication Date: May 25, 1998

Copybooks and the Palmer method, handwriting analysis and autograph collecting-these words conjure up a lost world, in which people looked to handwriting as both a lesson in conformity and a talisman of individuality. In this engaging history, ranging from colonial times to the present, Tamara Plakins Thornton explores the shifting functions and meanings of handwriting in America. Script emerged in the eighteenth century as a medium intimately associated with the self, says Thornton, in contrast to the impersonality of print. But thereafter, just what kind of self would be defined or revealed in script was debated in the context of changing economic and social realities, definitions of manhood and womanhood, and concepts of mind and body. Thornton details the parties to these disputes: writing masters who used penmanship training to form and discipline character; scientific experts who chalked up variations in script to mere physiological idiosyncrasy; and autograph collectors and handwriting analysts who celebrated signatures that broke copybook rules as marks of personality, revealing the uniqueness of the self. In our time, concludes Thornton, when handwriting skills seem altogether obsolete, calligraphy revivals and calls for old-fashioned penmanship training reflect nostalgia and the rejection of modernity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's so common to think of individual handwriting as distinctive that it's a surprise to learn that the notion of unique handwriting was unthinkable in America's colonial past. People learned a particular script, such as Court Hand or Round Hand, that reflected their gender, occupation, and status in life. A history of handwriting might seem like an obscure, academic subject, but this entertaining book smashes that assumption. Reading the story of how handwriting developed in the United States and its importance in society, may make you think twice about your penmanship the next time you pick up a pen. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This elegant study again proves that, in the right hands, a narrow topic is an excellent window into broad issues of social structure, education and popular culture. Historian Thornton (Cultivating Gentlemen) not only packs plenty of Americana into her history of handwriting but also relates trends in this country to European developments. In pre-revolutionary America, writing was an important skill for the elite: learned people knew five to eight handwriting styles, and hand-copied publications allowed antigovernment materials and pornography to escape censorship. The Victorian era saw penmanship classes conducted like military drills, the cult of autograph collecting and the rise of writing skills among women ("fair Scribblerinas," said one male scoffer). Idiosyncrasies in handwriting came to be seen not as deplorable but as a mark of individual uniqueness; people hired experts to analyze the handwriting of prospective employees, business partners and spouses; and a contest for the handwriting revealing the "most interesting personality" drew 300,000 entries. Crossing into the 20th century, we see the struggle of graphology to attain scientific respectability, the rise and fall of the Palmer instructional method and the recent revival of calligraphy as an art form. Thornton's high-quality scholarship will satisfy exacting academic audiences, and her graceful prose will charm and entertain the general reader. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (May 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300074417
• ISBN-13: 978-0300074413
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Handwriting in America: A Cultural History, April 11, 2009

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Royall Whitaker - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handwriting in America: A Cultural History (Paperback)

An interesting book, but it should have been titled "The Teaching of Handwriting in America". Also, it missed a kind of writing which I can't name, but know when I see it - for example, something like "California" on California auto license tags. It was taught in America, and it was the model in England for many years - a Life magazine article around 1950 showed such examples from the winners in an English schoolboy competition. (My father learned this style in a preparatory school in the South in the early 1900s, and one of our daughters-in-law was taught the same way.)
One reviewer adversely criticized this book for harping on, perhaps even imagining, sexism in the early teaching of handwriting, and I don't think the comment was deserved - I believe the author was accurately describing what was actually taught, and gave it no more space than is warranted.