The Struggle For The Breeches: Gender And The Making Of The British Working Class by Anna Clark

Anna Clark depicts the making of the working class in Britain as a "struggle for the breeches. " The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed significant changes in notions of masculinity and femininity, the sexual division of labor, and sexual mores, changes that were intimately intertwined with class politics. By integrating gender into the analysis of class formation, Clark transforms the traditional narrative of working-class history. Going beyond the sterile debate about whether economics or language determines class consciousness, Clark integrates working people's experience with an analysis of radical rhetoric. Focusing on Lancashire, Glasgow, and London, she contrasts the experience of artisans and textile workers, demonstrating how each created distinctively gendered communities and political strategies. Workers faced a "sexual crisis," Clark claims, as men and women competed for jobs and struggled over love and power in the family. This 1995 University of California Press Hardback is in good condition. DJ; Heavy. Small tear to the DJ at the front; minimal foxing to the page edges, otherwise very good.

ISBN: 9780520086241 SKU: 1582227 This image is of the actual book.

SKU: 1582227
Location: History