The Home, Its Work and Influence [Paperback]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0217801110 | ISBN-13: 978-0217801119

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... XIV HOME INFLUENCE ON MEN IN our peculiar and artificial opposition of "the Home" and "the World," we have roughly ascribed all the virtues to the first, and all the vices to the second. "The world, the flesh, and the devil" we still associate, forgetting that home is the very temple of the flesh, and in no way impervious to the devil. Sin is found at home as generally as elsewhere-- must be, unless women are sinless and men absolved on entering the sacred door. There are different sins and virtues, truly, as we have seen in the chapter on Domestic Ethics. There is less fighting at home, as there is but one man there. There is less stealing, the goods being more in common, only sometimes a sly rifling of pockets by the unpaid wife. A man pays his housekeeper, or his housemaids, because he has to; and he pays, and pays highly, the purely extortionate women of pleasure; but sometimes he forgets to pay his wife, and sometimes she steals. The home has patience, chastity, industry, love. But there is less justice, less honour, less courage, less truth; it does not embrace all the virtues. Such as it is, strong for good and also very weak for some good, possibly even showing some tendencies to evil, what is its influence on men? The boy baby feels it first; and that we have touched on. The home teaches the boy that women were made for service, domestic service, that the principal cares and labours of life are those which concern the body, and that his own particular tastes and preferences are of enormous importance. As fast as he gets out of the home and into the school, he learns quite other things, getting his exaggerated infant egotism knocked out of him very suddenly, and, as he gets out of school and into business, also into politics, he learns still further of t...

Editorial Reviews

Review

What makes this book different is its temporal context. . . . I became fascinated by the description of a woman's lifeworld within a 'typical' middle-class, American home of only 100 years ago. . . . The Home: Its Work and Influence can be considered a classic in gender studies. (Valerie Wright-St. Clair Journal Of Occupational Studies, Nov. 2003, Vol. 10, No. 3 ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prolific American writer and feminist theorist who wrote over two hundred short stories, including 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (1892), a stark account of a young mother's mental breakdown. Michael S. Kimmel is Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Stony Brook. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: General Books LLC (January 12, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0217801110
• ISBN-13: 978-0217801119
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,318,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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