Manhood on the Line: Working-Class Masculinities in the American Heartland (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780252040054)

Stephen Meyer charts the complex vagaries of men reinventing manhood in twentieth century America. Their ideas of masculinity destroyed by principles of mass production, workers created a white-dominated culture that defended its turf against other racial groups and revived a crude, hypersexualized treatment of women that went far beyond the shop floor. At the same time, they recast unionization battles as manly struggles against a system killing their very selves. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, Meyer recreates a social milieu in stunning detail--the mean labor and stolen pleasures, the battles on the street and in the soul, and a masculinity that expressed itself in violence and sexism but also as a wellspring of the fortitude necessary to maintain one's dignity while doing hard work in hard world.

Author: Stephen Meyer
ISBN-10: 0252040058
ISBN-13: 9780252040054
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 04/15/2016
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2016