{"product_id":"the-perfecting-of-nature-josh-doty-9781469659602","title":"The Perfecting of Nature: Reforming Bodies in Antebellum Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe nineteenth century saw a marked change in how Americans viewed and understood the human form. These new ways of understanding the body reflect how Americans were beginning to see the body's constituent parts as interconnected. From the transcendentalists' idealized concept of self to the rise of Darwinian theory after the Civil War, the era and its writers redefined the human body as both deeply reactive and malleable. Josh Doty explores antebellum American conceptions of bioplasticity--the body's ability to react and change from interior and exterior forces--and argues that literature helped to shape the cultural reception of these ideas. These new ways of thinking about the body's responsiveness to its surroundings enabled exercise fanatics, cold-water bathers, cookbook authors, and everyday readers to understand the tractable body as a way to reform the United States at the physiological level.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDoty weaves together analysis of religious texts, nutritional guides, and canonical literature to show the fluid relationship among bodies, literature, and culture in nineteenth-century America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Josh Doty\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1469659603\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781469659602\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/16\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 180\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.01lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d","brand":"Josh Doty","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48622417281279,"sku":"9781469659602","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-perfecting-of-nature-josh-doty-9781469659602","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}