White, Male and Middle Class

What are the relations between feminism and history, feminist politics and historical practice? What are the connections between gender and class? What part have racial identities and ethnic difference played in the construction of Englishness? Through a series of provocative and richly detailed essays, Catherine Hall explores these questions. She argues that feminism has opened up vital new questions for history and transformed familiar historical narratives. Class can no longer be understood outside of gender, or gender outside of class. But English identities have also been rooted in imperial power. White, Male and Middle Class explores the ways in which middle-class masculinities were rooted in conceptions of power over dependants - whether black or female.

What are the relations between feminism and history, feministpolitics and historical practice? What are the connections betweengender and class? What part have racial identities and ethnicdifference played in the construction of Englishness?Through a series of provocative and richly detailed essaysCatherine Hall explores these questions. She argues that feminismhas opened up vital new questions for history and transformedfamiliar historical narratives. Class can no longer be understoodoutside of gender, or gender outside of class.But English identities have also been rooted in imperial power.White, Male and Middle Class explores the ways in whichmiddle-class masculinities were rooted in conceptions of power overdependants - whether black or female.

Acknowledgements vii1 Feminism and Feminist History 1Part I The Beginnings2 The History of the Housewife 43Part II Gender and Class3 The Early Formation of Victorian Domestic Ideology 754 Gender Divisions and Class Formation in the Birmingham MiddleClass, 1780-1850 945 The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick-maker: the shop andthe family in the Industrial Revolution 1086 The Tale of Samuel and Jemima: gender and working-classculture in early-nineteenth-centuryEngland 1247 Private Persons versus Public Someones: class, gender andpolitics in England, 1780-1850 1518 Strains in the 'Firm of Wife, Children andFriends': middle-class women and employment inearly-nineteenth-century England 172Part III Race, Ethnicity and Difference9 Missionary Stories: gender and ethnicity in England in the1830s and 1840s 20510 Competing Masculinities: Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill andthe case of Governor Eyre 255Index 296