Book

American misfits and the making of middle-class respectability

Wuthnow, Robert, author

Overview

\"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 individuals and groups that became objects of derision. We meet a disabled Civil War veteran who worked as a huckster on the edges of the frontier, the wife of a lunatic who raised her family while her husband was institutionalized, an immigrant religious community accused of sedition, and a wealthy scion charged with profiteering. Unlike respected Americans who marched confidently toward worldly and heavenly success, such misfits were usually ignored in paeans about the nation. But they played an important part in the cultural work that made America, and their story is essential for understanding the 'othering' that remains so much a part of American culture and politics today.\" -- Provided by the publisher.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Middle class United States History. / Middle class History. / Middle class. / United States.
• ISBN: 9780691176864, 0691176868

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
HT690.U6 W88 2017	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE