{"product_id":"bodies-of-reform-james-b-salazar-9780814741306","title":"Bodies of Reform: The Rhetoric of Character in Gilded Age America","description":"\u003cp\u003ePart of the American Literatures Initiative Series \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the patricians of the early republic to post-Reconstruction racial scientists, from fin de siècle progressivist social reformers to post-war sociologists, character, that curiously formable yet equally formidable \"stuff,\" has had a long and checkered history giving shape to the American national identity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBodies of Reform reconceives this pivotal category of nineteenth-century literature and culture by charting the development of the concept of \"character\" in the fictional genres, social reform movements, and political cultures of the United States from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century. By reading novelists such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman alongside a diverse collection of texts concerned with the mission of building character, including child-rearing guides, muscle-building magazines, libel and naturalization law, Scout handbooks, and success manuals, James B. Salazar uncovers how the cultural practices of representing character operated in tandem with the character-building strategies of social reformers. His innovative reading of this archive offers a radical revision of this defining category in U.S. literature and culture, arguing that character was the keystone of a cultural politics of embodiment, a politics that played a critical role in determining-and contesting-the social mobility, political authority, and cultural meaning of the raced and gendered body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James B. Salazar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0814741304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780814741306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/15\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.31lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.81d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2011","brand":"James B. Salazar","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47425079312639,"sku":"9780814741306","price":107.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_071ccb7f-b9c8-49f2-abf5-09347fc26435.jpg?v=1761536864","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/bodies-of-reform-james-b-salazar-9780814741306","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}