Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American DomesticityAlthough she is often remembered only as the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, there was a time in Catharine Beecher s life when she was more widely known than any member of her eminent family. A pioneering teacher, a writer on moral and religious topics, and an avid publicist for women s education, her name became a household word in the 1840s because of the enormous success of her Treatise on Domestic Economy. This

Although she is often remembered only as the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, there was a time in Catharine Beecher s life when she was more widely known than any member of her eminent family. A pioneering teacher, a writer on moral and religious topics, and an avid publicist for women s education, her name became a household word in the 1840s because of the enormous success of her Treatise on Domestic Economy. This comprehensive guide to all aspects of domestic self-management was part of her effort to create a female domain from which cultural power could be exercised. In the recent reassessment of the historical experience of women, the middle decades of the last century have emerged as a critical period: the movement for women s rights was born, and the genteel cult of the lady and the encumbering customs of domesticity took hold. Present-day attitudes about the family and images of masculine and feminine roles are still strongly shaped by nineteenth-century ideas. Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity examines that era through the life of one of its major protagonists. It offers new insights into the shifting contours of the nineteenth-century female experience and is a signal contribution to the intellectual and social history of the period."

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 08/17/1976
ISBN: 9780393008128
Pages: 376
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.07h x 5.03w x 0.81d