Screen LibraryAmerican misfits and the making of middle-class respectability /
"The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America is usually described as a process of inculcating positive values such as honesty, hard work, independence, and cultural refinement. But clergy, educators, and community leaders also defined respectability negatively, by ma...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
Princeton University Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Princeton, New Jersey : |
| Publication Dates: | [2017] |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America is usually described as a process of inculcating positive values such as honesty, hard work, independence, and cultural refinement. But clergy, educators, and community leaders also defined respectability negatively, by maligning individuals and groups--"misfits"--Who deviated from accepted norms. Robert Wuthnow argues that respectability is constructed by "othering" people who do not fit into easily recognizable, socially approved categories. He demonstrates this through an in-depth examination of a wide variety of ind |
| Carrier Form: | vii, 339 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-325) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780691176864 (hardback : alkaline paper) : 0691176868 (hardback : alkaline paper) |
| Index Number: | HT684 |
| CLC: | D771.261-09 |
| Call Number: | D771.261-09/W973 |
| Contents: | Introduction -- A relational approach : the social construction of respect and respectability -- Worked as a huckster : moral connotations of placeless labor -- An incurable lunatic : pension politics in the struggle for respectability -- Not a fanatic : zeal in the cause of Zion -- Dying young : immigrant congregations as moral communities -- Excessive profits : wealth, morality, and the common people -- Naughty children : moral instruction by negative example -- Othering : cultural diversity and symbolic boundaries. |