MASCULINITY, 1560-1918: MEN DEFINING MEN AND GENTLEMEN

Part 1: 1600-1800, Sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

"The study of eighteenth-century masculinity is particularly interesting because while the concern over manliness is evident in the conduct, advice and educational literature represented in this set of microfilms, it was interwoven with another concern, anxiety over effeminacy. Why was a concept signifying problematic gender boundaries for men a pervasive cultural metaphor throughout the century?"
Michèle Cohen, Consultant Editor, Humanities Department, The American International University in London, Richmond.

Part 1 of this project makes available 61 core texts and a host of ephemera concerning concepts of Masculinity in the 17th and 18th centuries.  We feature:

• Hundreds of ballads and poems on knaves, cuckholds, gallants and dandies.
• Material contrasting ideals of masculinity in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland.
• Writings on chivalry, civility and good-breeding, which reflect both gender and class assumptions.
• Important texts describing the education of boys and life at public schools.
• Discussions concerning trade and the professions and manliness and effeminacy.