Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America

by: Mark C. Caes (Author)

Publication Date: 1991/7/24

Language: English

Print Length: 240 pages

ISBN-10: 0300051468

ISBN-13: 9780300051469

Book Description

Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias―why did millions of nineteenth-century American men belong to these and other secret orders? In this engrossing study, Mark C. Caes argues that frateal rituals created a fantasy world antithetical to prevailing religious practices, gender roles, and institutional structures, offering a male religious counterculture that opposed an increasingly liberal and feminized Protestantism. “[An] original and compelling study. . . . Making use of anthropology as well as social history, Caes is probably the first outsider to take these rituals seriously. . . . Playing the role of a graceful, controlling . . . guide into these mysteries, Caes slowly unveils his thesis, which itself has several layers of mystery.”―David Leverentz, New England Quarterly “An imaginative fusion of social and intellectual history. . . . Caes’s work shows the true depth of nineteenth-century male sexual anxiety and hostility toward women. In this compelling book, Caes opens new approaches to the study of gender and helps us better understand the reorientation of American culture at the tu of the century.” ―Donald Yacovone, Joual of American History”This is an important monograph in the field of men’s history. . . . This is ambitious conceptualization―the book is a refreshingly bold statement. . . . I find most of its conclusions accurate.”―Peter N. Steas, Joual of Ritual Studies”The breadth and thoroughness of this book is impressive. Caes draws on the literature of the time, religious history and theology, child rearing and developmental psychology, women’s history and gender studies, and structural and cultural anthropology.”―Rosamund Orde-Powlett, Literary Review

About the Author

Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias―why did millions of nineteenth-century American men belong to these and other secret orders? In this engrossing study, Mark C. Caes argues that frateal rituals created a fantasy world antithetical to prevailing religious practices, gender roles, and institutional structures, offering a male religious counterculture that opposed an increasingly liberal and feminized Protestantism. “[An] original and compelling study. . . . Making use of anthropology as well as social history, Caes is probably the first outsider to take these rituals seriously. . . . Playing the role of a graceful, controlling . . . guide into these mysteries, Caes slowly unveils his thesis, which itself has several layers of mystery.”―David Leverentz, New England Quarterly “An imaginative fusion of social and intellectual history. . . . Caes’s work shows the true depth of nineteenth-century male sexual anxiety and hostility toward women. In this compelling book, Caes opens new approaches to the study of gender and helps us better understand the reorientation of American culture at the tu of the century.” ―Donald Yacovone, Joual of American History”This is an important monograph in the field of men’s history. . . . This is ambitious conceptualization―the book is a refreshingly bold statement. . . . I find most of its conclusions accurate.”―Peter N. Steas, Joual of Ritual Studies”The breadth and thoroughness of this book is impressive. Caes draws on the literature of the time, religious history and theology, child rearing and developmental psychology, women’s history and gender studies, and structural and cultural anthropology.”―Rosamund Orde-Powlett, Literary Review

未经允许不得转载：Wow! eBook » Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America