History 639B

for printer friendly version, please click  here

 

 

 

American Social, Cultural and Intellectual History 

(HISTORY  639B and AMERICAN STUDIES 646)                       Sakamaki A-201

RESEARCH SEMESTER                                                               Wed. 3-5:30 p.m.

Richard L. Rapson    rapson@hawaii.edu

January 12, 2005                       Web Page: www2.hawaii.edu/~rapson

   Office Hours: TuTh, 10:20-11; Wed, 2:30-3 and by appointment.           956-6801

Office: Sakamaki B-215                                                                  rapson@aol.com

 

 

 

   Members of this seminar typically come from a wide variety of backgrounds, disciplines, and interests.  The disciplines represented always include History and American Studies, of course.  But increasing numbers are coming from Psychology plus a sprinkling from English, Philosophy, Social Work, Speech, Business, International Relations, Theatre, Sociology, various other social sciences, and other quarters as well.

 

   Bearing that in mind, I have tried to construct a course that will be slightly different for each person, one that will be tailored to individual needs and interests as much as possible.  There will be a balance of things we all do together and those that will be done individually; the balance will differ with each person.  I’ll meet with each of you separately to do the tailoring.

 

   The best way to grasp my objectives in the seminar is to see them as falling into six categories, described below 1. Multicultural issues and the University today (note the class on Jan. 19). 2. Multidisciplinary matters (five joint classes with the graduate seminar in Social Psychology). 3. The need for Synthesis (my seven presentations: see in schedule). 4. Individual explorations (one-on-one work with me). 5. Film, Fiction, and History—and Teaching. 6. Readings in Non-Traditional History: The New Cultural History and The New Psychological History (see lists below).

 

 

 

 

THE WORK TOGETHER

 

   1. We begin with a look at the intense culture wars generated from the Academy (not incidentally from History and American Studies programs), reaching into U.S. society-at-large, and then sent back into the Universities.  We read together and discuss two well-known and contending books which debate multiculturalism  and which also address some of the related theoretical matters.  They also look at the general state of American Universities today.  We’ll do this at the beginning of the course and factor in the very conservative tilt of the country outside the halls of Ivy.  At the end of the course, we’ll read my newest book (AMAZED BY LIFE: CONFESSIONS OF A NON-RELIGIOUS BELIEVER)—one that touches on these and other matters.

 

   2. Then we explore the new multidisciplinary  strategies that may very well revolutionize intellectual and academic life in the next century.  We do this essentially by introducing a course-within-a-course into our seminar; in five of our sessions, we will meet jointly with the graduate seminar in Social Psychology and together we will investigate the exciting connections between psychology and history.  And we will chart some joint research strategies with the psychologists.  Does this joint enterprise, which transcends traditional academic specialization, offer us a glimpse into the intellectual future?

 

    3. Finally, in a time of narrow specialization, I’d like to put in some good words (via a series of presentations plus some informal discussion of the AMAZED . . . book) for The Big Picture, for synthesis .  And at a time when some theories emphasize how little we can truly know, I’d like to say some good things about what we can (if imperfectly) “know.”  In this seminar, we’ll swim (with respect) a bit against the prevailing academic tides.

 

 

THE INDIVIDUALLY-TAILORED WORK

 

    4. There are several possibilities here, some of which relate to things currently on my mind, others that belong exclusively to your mind.  I’ll work out the choices with each of you individually, but they fall into the following categories.

 

            A. Your own research interests, which can be pursued in a number of ways.  History graduate students who wish this seminar to count as a research seminar must, obviously, complete a research paper developed in my conversations with you. 

                                    Or,

         B. Reading some books in the new psychological history or the new cultural history (see my extensive list at the end). Students who previously attended my joint seminars with the Social Psychology seminar might typically pursue matters we began there through further reading.  My list includes many outstanding, innovating books in social, cultural, and intellectual history, most of which have been written in the past 15 years.  This will afford us a glimpse of what now is possible as history ventures into new territories in novel ways.

                                    Or,

        C. Reading a collection of what I call ‘Historically-informed fiction.”  This enterprise might include reading John Updike’s “Rabbit Quartet” or Gore Vidal’s ‘American Chronicles.”

                                    Or,

        D. Exploration into the relatively unexamined and quite exciting relationship between films and history.  I explain items #3 & 4 more fully below.

                                    Or,

       E. Something else more germane to your own particular interests.

 

 

 

 

FILMS, FICTION, AND HISTORY

 

   Historians in Research Universities have tended to equate the study of the past with the methods and expression of traditional scholarship. But history is no longer the private preserve of the academics.  First-rate work about the past is being done by filmmakers, novelists, composers, as well as by scholars from a variety of disciplines.

 

   (Tons of third-rate work is also being done in the form of television docudramas with no interest in accuracy, films with historical settings that are far more about “entertainment value” than about any genuine interest in the past, where characters speak invented lines in language right out of today’s sitcoms. Further, many Americans get their history from Disney theme parks.)

 

   We can find in much of European film and TV an almost instinctive concern for historical accuracy; in America, that tradition does not exist--until recently, that is.

 

   Since the end of World War II, many of our finest novelists have turned to the past for inspiration.  John Updike, Phillip Roth, Toni Morrison, Gore Vidal, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow and others have done their research before casting their fictions in previous eras.  And on television, directors like Ken Burns and David Grubin and the makers of “The American Experience” series have recently brought historical integrity to their films.

 

    A sub-theme in this course not only recognizes these new ways of doing history, but that they have had a major impact in the teaching  as well as the doing  of history. We shall examine and analyze these different modes for resurrecting the past, assessing various strengths and dangers. We will look at implications both for teaching as well as for research.  These new forms of expression will certainly make their way into our classrooms.  And, finally, is it far-fetched to think that Universities could even be helpful in forging a new generation of filmmakers and fiction writers who will enrich our understanding of the past and of culture?

 

   All in all, I hope to create in the seminar a grown-up, relaxed atmosphere in which we truly learn from and help each other—an experience of co-operative, sophisticated, and enjoyable intellectual exploration.

 

 

WORK DONE BY ALL

   Reading: Bloom, Levine, Amazed By Life—plus handouts.

   Discussions: Five sessions with Psychology graduate students plus

                                     seven others (on our own) dealing with modern

                                     History’s largest themes and issues.

 

INDIVIDUAL WORK

   Reading, Research and Reports chosen from varying combinations of:

                                    Film and History

                                    Fiction and History

                                    Psychological History

                                    Your own Research and Intellectual Interests

                                   

  

 

                                       

 

                                      SCHEDULE

 

Jan. 12                       Introductions

 

Jan. 19                    UNIVERSITIES AND MULTICULTURALISM

Read Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind  (including Preface by Saul Bellow) and Lawrence Levine, The Opening of the American Mind.

 

Jan. 26                       Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #1:

                                    “The Westernization of the Modern World.”

 

Feb. 2                         Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #2:

                                    “Why the West? Religion and Science”

                                   

  Feb. 9                       Joint Meeting with Social Psychology                                      Graduate Seminar (650/751). All Joint

                            Classes Meet in Sakamaki A-201.

                                    The Family, Sex, and Marriage: The Past

 

Feb. 16                Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #3:

                             “Micro-History and Textual Analysis—

                                    The Village Blacksmith”

 

 

  Feb. 23                     Joint Meeting (II) with Social Psychology

                                    Graduate Seminar.

                                    The Family, Sex, and Marriage: The Present

 

  March 2                    Big Picture Lecture and Discussion#4:

                                     “How is America Different?  Is It Exceptional?

                                    The Egalitarian Model”                                

 

  March 9                    Joint Meeting (III) with Social Psychology

                                    Graduate Seminar.

                                    The Family, Sex, and Marriage: The Future

 

                                   

  March 16                  Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #5:

                                    “Progressive vs. Consensus History”

 

 

 March 23                   SPRING VACATION

 

 

March 30                    Joint Meeting (IV) with Social

                                    Psychology Graduate Seminar.

                                    Sex: Past, Present, Future.

 

April 6                         Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #6:

                                    “The Holocaust and ‘Evil’ in History”

 

 

  April 13                     Final Joint Meeting with Social

                                     Psychology Graduate Seminar.

                                    Cross-Cultural Considerations.

                                    Also Film: “The Amazing Randi.”

 

 

April 20                       Big Picture Lecture and Discussion #7:

                                    “The Contemporary Climate of Opinion”

 

April 27*                     Conclusions.

                                    Read RLR, Amazed By Life: Confessions of a

                                    Non-Religious Believer (2003)

       *THIS CLASS WILL MEET AT MY HOME.

 

 

May 4                     Completion of Independent Work (I will be available all

                               afternoon in my office to meet with you.)                                               

 

***********************************************************

 

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

 

 

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Richard L. Rapson

 

 

Some Arresting, Original Recent Books in Social, Cultural and Intellectual History

(in chronological order)

 

Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean: and the Mediterranean World             in the Age of Philip II, 2 vols. (Harper & Row: NY, 1966)

Garry Wills, Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1979)

Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worm: The Cosmos of a            Sixteenth-Century Miller (Johns Hopkins U. Press:                                                                Baltimore: 1980)

Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Knopf: NY,          1980)

Philippe Aries, The Hour of Our Death (Knopf: NY, 1981)

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Harvard U.

                        Press: Cambridge, 1983)

Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism: 15th-18th Century, 3    vols. 1.The Structures of Everyday Life (Harper & Row:                                                        NY, 1981); 2. Wheels of Commerce (1982); 3. Perspective                                                                     of the World (Harper & Row: NY, 1984)

Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (U. of North    Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1982)

Daniel Boorstin, The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know           His World and Himself (Random House: NY, 1983)

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre; and Other Episodes in       French Cultural History (Basic Books: NY, 1984)

Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History (Oxford U.             Press: NY, 1986)

Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in

                        Medieval England (Oxford U. Press: London, 1986)

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic       Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000 (Random                                                               House: NY, 1987)

Richard L. Rapson, American Yearnings: Love, Money, and Endless

                        Possibility (University Press of America: Washington,

                        D.C., 1988)

Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (Collins: London, 1987)

Jonathan Spence, The Question of Hu (Knopf: NY, 1988)

Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural         History (Norton: NY, 1990)

Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of           Darwinism in American Social Thought (Oxford U. Press:                                                  NY, 1991)

Simon Schama, Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations  (Knopf:          NY, 1991)

Daniel Boorstin, The Creators: A History of Heroes of the

                        Imagination (Random House: NY, 1992)

Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America           (Simon & Schuster: NY, 1992)

Beatrice Gottlieb, The Family in the Western World from the Black

                        Death to the Industrial Age (Oxford U. Press: London,

                        1993)

Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the   Middle Ages to 1870 (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1993)

John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (Knopf: NY, 1994)

Richard Sennett, Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western            Civilization (Norton: NY, 1994)

Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best Sellers of Prerevolutionary        France  (Norton: NY,1995)

Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s

                        (Farrar, Straus: NY,1995)

David Hollinger, Post-Ethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism

                        (Basic Books: NY, 1995)

Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of     Advertising in America (Basic Books: NY, 1995)

Roy Porter, London: A Social History (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge,             1995)

Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory  (Knopf: NY,1995)

Patricia Meyer Spacks, Boredom: The Literary History of a State of   Mind  (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1995)

Liselotte Steinbrugge, The Moral Sex: Woman’s Nature in the French

                        Enlightenment (Oxford U. Press: London, 1995)

Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and     Their Tellers (Chatto & Windus: London, 1995)

Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity (HarperCollins:

                        NY, 1995)

Pat Jalland, Death in the Victorian Family (Oxford U. Press:

                        London, 1996)

Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (1996)

Steven Ozment, The Burger-Meister’s Daughter: Scandal in a 16th-   Century German Town (1996)

Jonathan Spence, God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly

                        Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan ( Norton: NY,1996)

Renate Bridenthal and Susan Mosher Stuard, eds., Becoming

                        Visible: Women in European History (Houghton

                        Mifflin: NY, 1997)

Michael Brown,  The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an    Anxious Age  (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1997)

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human

                        Societies (Norton: NY, 1997)

Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions           of War (Holt: NY, 1997)

Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the

                        Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (Oxford U.

                        Press: London, 1997)

Arthur Herman,  The Idea of Decline inWestern History (The Free       Press: NY, 1997)

David Hollinger, Transvaluations: Science, Jews and Secular Culture-          Studies in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Intellectual                                      History (Princeton U. Press: Princeton, 1997)

Bettyann Kevles Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the 20th       Century (Rutgers U. Press: NY, 1997)

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie,  The Beggar and the Professor: A             Sixteenth-Century Family Saga. Translated by Arthur                                                              Goldhammer. (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1997)

Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading (Penguin: NY, 1997)

Stephen Oates, The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-   1861 (HarperCollins: NY, 1997)

Peter Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West    (NYU Press: NY, 1997)

Gary Taylor, Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Withstand            the Test of Time--and Others Don’t (Basic Books: NY,                                                      1997)

Garry Wills, John Wayne’s America: The Politics of Celebrity

                        (Simon & Schuster: NY, 1997)

William F. Baker & George Dessart, Down the Tube: An Inside           Account of the Failure of American Television (Basic                                                           Books: NY, 1998)

Daniel Boorstin, The Seekers: The Story of Man’s Continuing Quest (Random House: NY, 1998)

David Bordwell, On the History of Film Style (Harvard U. Press:          Cambridge, 1998)

Patricial Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and

Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New

York  (Knopf: NY, 1998)

James N. Davidson, Courtesans & Fishcakes: The Consuming

                        Passions of Classical Athens (St. Martin’s Press: NY, 1998)

Hans Ulrich Gumbert, In 1926: Living On the Edge of Time (Harvard   U. Press: Cambridge, 1998)

Ralph Houlbrooke, Death, Religion, and the Family in England,

                        1480-1750 (Oxford U. Press: London 1998)

Richard Pells, Not like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Basic                                                               Books: NY, 1998)

Glenn Wallach, Obedient Sons: The Discourse of Youth and   Generations in American Culture, 1630-1860 (Univ, of                                                                          Massachusetts Press: Amherst, 1998)

Bonnie Anderson and Judith Zinsser, A History of Their Own:  Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, 2 vols.

                         (Oxford U. Press: London 1999)

Rudolph Bell, How To Do It: Guides to Good Living for

                        Renaissance Italians (U. of Chicago Press:

                        Chicago, 1999)

Richard Evans, Tales from the German Underworld (Yale

                        Univ. Press: New Haven, 1999)

Ann Goldberg, Sex, Religion, and the Making of Modern Madness:

                        The Eberbach Asylum and German Society, 1815-1849

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1999)

Lawrence Friedman, The Horizontal Society (Yale U. Press:

                        New Haven, 1999)

Ann Goldberg, Sex, Religion, and the Making of Modern Madness:

                        The Eberbach Asylum and German Society, 1815-1849

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1999)

 

 Michael Kammen, American Culture, American Tastes: Social

                         Change and the 20th Century (Knopf: NY, 1999)

Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Conduct Unbecoming A Woman:

                        Medicine on Trial in Turn-of-the-Century Brooklyn

                        (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1999)

Wendy Kaminer, Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of

                        Irrationalism and Perils of Piety (Pantheon: NY, 1999)

Daniel Roche, France in the Enlightenment (Harvard U. Press:

                        Cambridge, 1999)

Jonathan Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western

                        Minds (Norton: NY, 1999)

Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western

                        Cultural Life—1500 to Present (HarperCollins: NY, 2000)

Cynthia Eller, The Myth of Matriarachal Prehistory: Why an

                        Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future (Beacon

                        Press: Boston, 2000)

Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth

                        Century (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 2000)

Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and the

Modern Gastronomic Culture (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge, 2000)

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France

                        (U. of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 2001)

Peter Gay, Schnitzler’s Century: The Amaking of Middle-Class

                        Culture, 1815-1916 (Norton: NY, 2001)

Jenna Weissman Joselit, A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and

                        The Promise of America (NY: Holt, 2001)

J.M. Beattie, Policing and Punishment in London, 166-1750: Urban

                        Crime and the Limits of Terror (Oxford U. Press: 2002)

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Food: A History (NY: Macmillan, 2002)

Estelle Freedman, No Turning Back: The History and the Future

                        Of Women (Profile: NY, 2002)

Mary Laven, Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in

                        The Renaissance Convent (Viking: NY, 2002)

E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., and Judy Miller, The Invisible Plague: The

                        Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present

                        (Rutgers U. Press: New Brunswick, N.J., 2002)

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories

                        in the Creation of an American Myth (Vintage: NY, 2002)

Michael Cook, A Brief History of the Human Race (Norton: NY, 2003)

Gail Collins, America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls,

                        Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines (Morrow: NY, 2003)

Robert Darnton, George Washington’s False Teeth:  An

                        Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth Century

                        (Norton: NY, 2003)

Deborah Hayden, Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of

                        Syphilis (Basic Books: NY, 2003)

Charles Murray: Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence

                        In the Arts and Sciences—800 B.C. to 1950

                        (HarperCollins: NY, 2003)

Judith Flanders, Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic

                        Life in Victorian England (Norton: NY, 2004)

 

 

Susan Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

                        (Metropolitan Books: NY, 2004)

Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became

                        A National Icon (Farrar, Straus: NY, 2004)

                         

 

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

Social, Cultural and Intellectual History (in alphabetical order)

 

 

Bonnie Anderson and Judith Zinsser, A History of Their Own:  Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, 2 vols.

                         (Oxford U. Press: London 1999)

Philippe Aries, The Hour of Our Death (Knopf: NY, 1981)

William F. Baker & George Dessart, Down the Tube: An Inside           Account of the Failure of American Television (Basic                                                           Books: NY, 1998)

Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western

                        Cultural Life—1500 to Present (HarperCollins: NY, 2000)

J.M. Beattie, Policing and Punishment in London, 166-1750: Urban

                        Crime and the Limits of Terror (Oxford U. Press: 2002)

Rudolph Bell, How To Do It: Guides to Good Living for

                        Renaissance Italians (U. of Chicago Press:

                        Chicago, 1999)

Renate Bridenthal and Susan Mosher Stuard, eds., Becoming

                        Visible: Women in European History (Houghton

                        Mifflin: NY, 1997)

Daniel Boorstin, The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know           His World and Himself (Random House: NY, 1983)

Daniel Boorstin, The Creators: A History of Heroes of the

                        Imagination(Random House: NY, 1992)

Daniel Boorstin, The Seekers: The Story of Man’s Continuing Quest (Random House: NY, 1998)

David Bordwell, On the History of Film Style (Harvard U. Press:          Cambridge, 1998)

Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean: and the Mediterranean World             in the Age of Philip II, 2 vols. (Harper & Row: NY, 1966)

Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism: 15th-18th Century, 3    vols. 1.The Structures of Everyday Life (Harper & Row:                                                        NY, 1981); 2. Wheels of Commerce (1982); 3. Perspective                                                                     of the World (Harper & Row: NY, 1984)

Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History (Oxford U.             Press: NY, 1986)

Michael Brown,  The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an    Anxious Age  (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1997)

Patricial Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life

                        And Deathof a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century

                        New York (Knopf: NY, 1998)

Gail Collins, America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls,

                        Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines (Morrow: NY, 2003)

Michael Cook, A Brief History of the Human Race (Norton: NY, 2003)

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre; and Other Episodes in       French Cultural History (Basic Books: NY, 1984)

Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural         History (Norton: NY, 1990)

Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best Sellers of Prerevolutionary        France  ( Norton: NY,1995)

Robert Darnton, George Washington’s False Teeth:  An

                        Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth Century

                        (Norton: NY, 2003)

James N. Davidson, Courtesans & Fishcakes: The Consuming

                        Passions of Classical Athens (St. Martin’s Press:

                        NY, 1998)

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Harvard

                        U. Press: Cambridge, 1983)

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France

                        (U. of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 2001)

Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of           Darwinism in American Social Thought (Oxford U. Press:                                                  NY, 1991)

John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (Knopf: NY, 1994)

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human

                        Societies (Norton: NY, 1997)

Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s

                        (Farrar, Straus: NY,1995)

Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions           of War (Holt: NY, 1997)

Cynthia Eller, The Myth of Matriarachal Prehistory: Why an

                        Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future (Beacon

                        Press: Boston, 2000)

Richard Evans, Tales from the German Underworld  (Yale

                        Univ. Press: New Haven, 1999

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Food: A History (NY: Macmillan, 2002)

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in

                         Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1999)

Judith Flanders, Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic

                        Life in Victorian England (Norton: NY, 2004)

Estelle Freedman, No Turning Back: The History and the Future

                        Of Women (Profile: NY, 2002)

Lawrence Friedman, The Horizontal Society (Yale U. Press:

                        New Haven, 1999)

Peter Gay, Schnitzler’s Century: The Making of Middle-Class

                        Culture, 1815-1916 (Norton: NY, 2001

Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worm: The Cosmos of a            Sixteenth-Century Miller (Johns Hopkins U. Press:                                                                Baltimore, 1980)

Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth

                        Century (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 2000)

Ann Goldberg, Sex, Religion, and the Making of Modern Madness:

                        The Eberbach Asylum and German Society, 1815-1849

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1999)

Beatrice Gottlieb, The Family in the Western World from the Black

                        Death to the Industrial Age (Oxford U. Press: London,

                        1993)

Hans Ulrich Gumbert, In 1926: Living On the Edge of Time (Harvard   U. Press: Cambridge, 1998)

Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in

                        Medieval England (Oxford U. Press: London, 1986)

Deborah Hayden, Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of

                        Syphilis (Basic Books: NY, 2003)

Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the

                        Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (Oxford

                        U. Press: London, 1997)

Arthur Herman,  The Idea of Decline inWestern History (The Free       Press: NY, 1997)

David Hollinger, Post-Ethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism

                        (Basic Books: NY, 1997)

David Hollinger, Transvaluations: Science, Jews and Secular

                        Culture--Studies in Mid-Twentieth-Century

                        American Intellectual History (Princeton U. Pre

                        Press: Princeton, 1997)

Ralph Houlbrooke, Death, Religion, and the Family in England,

                        1480-1750 (Oxford U. Press: London 1998)

Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (U. of North    Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1982)

Susan Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

                        (Metropolitan Books: NY, 2004)

Pat Jalland, Death in the Victorian Family (Oxford U. Press:

                        London, 1996)

Jenna Weissman Joselit, A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and

                        The Promise of America (NY: Holt, 2001)

Wendy Kaminer, Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of

                        Irrationalism and Perils of Piety (Pantheon: NY, 1999)

Michael Kammen, American Culture, American Tastes: Social

                         Change and the 20th Century (Knopf: NY, 1999)

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic       Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000 (Random                                                               House: NY, 1987)

Bettyann Kevles, Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the 20th      Century (Rutgers U. Press: NY, 1997)

Mary Laven, Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in

                        The Renaissance Convent (Viking: NY, 2002)

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie,  The Beggar and the Professor: A             Sixteenth-Century Family Saga. Translated by Arthur                                                              Goldhammer. (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1997)

Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of     Advertising in America (Basic Books: NY, 1995)

Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the   Middle Ages to 1870 (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1993)

Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (1996)

Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading (Penguin: NY, 1997)

Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Conduct Unbecoming A Woman:

                        Medicine on Trial in Turn-of-the-Century Brooklyn

                        (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1999)

Charles Murray: Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence

                        In the Arts and Sciences—800 B.C. to 1950

                        (HarperCollins: NY, 2003)

 Stephen Oates, The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-  1861 (HarperCollins: NY, 1997)

Steven Ozment, The Burger-Meister’s Daughter: Scandal in a 16th-   Century German Town (1996)

Richard Pells, Not like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Basic                                                               Books: NY, 1998)

Roy Porter, London: A Social History (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge,             1995)

Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became

                        A National Icon (Farrar, Straus: NY, 2004)

Richard L. Rapson, American Yearnings: Love, Money, and Endless

                        Possibility (University Press of America: Washington,

                        D.C., 1988)

Daniel Roche, France in the Enlightenment (Harvard U. Press:

                        Cambridge, 1999)

Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (Collins: London, 1987)

Simon Schama, Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations  (Knopf:          NY, 1991)

Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory  (Knopf: NY,1995)

Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Knopf: NY,          1980)

Richard Sennett, Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western            Civilization (Norton: NY, 1994)

Patricia Meyer Spacks, Boredom: The Literary History of a State of   Mind (University of Chicago Press: Chicago,1995)

Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and the

                        Modern Gastronomic Culture (Harvard U. Press:

                         Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris

                        and the Modern Gastronomic Culture (Harvard U. Press:

                        Cambridge, 2000)Cambridge, 2000)

Jonathan Spence, The Question of Hu (Knopf: NY, 1988)

Jonathan Spence, God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly

                        Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan ( Norton: NY, 1996

Jonathan Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent: China in

                        Western Minds (Norton: NY, 1999)

Peter Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West    (NYU Press: NY, 1997)

Liselotte Steinbrugge, The Moral Sex: Woman’s Nature in the French

                        Enlightenment (Oxford U. Press: London, 1995)

Gary Taylor, Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements

                        Withstand the Test of Time--and Others Don’t

                        (Basic Books: NY, 1997)

E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., and Judy Miller, The Invisible Plague: The

                     Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories

                        in the Creation of an American Myth (Vintage: NY, 2002)

Glenn Wallach, Obedient Sons: The Discourse of Youth and   Generations in American Culture, 1630-1860 (Univ, of                                                                          Massachusetts Press: Amherst, 1998)

Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and     Their Tellers (Chatto & Windus: London, 1995)

Garry Wills, Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1979)

Garry Wills, John Wayne’s America: The Politics of Celebrity

                        (Simon & Schuster: NY, 1997)

Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America           (Simon & Schuster: NY, 1992)

Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity (HarperCollins:

                        NY, 1995)

***************************************************************************

 

 

About Cultural History and Culture:

 

Norman Cantor, Twentieth Century Culture: Modernism to       Deconstruction (Peter Lang: NY,1988)

Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History (1989)

Andrew Ross, No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture              (Routledge: NY,1989)

Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob, Telling the Truth        About History (NY, 1993)

Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture         (Routledge: NY,1995)

Lawrence Levine, The Opening of the American Mind: Canons,         Culture, and History (Beacon Press: Boston, 1996)

Norman Cantor, The American Century: Varieties of Culture in           Modern Times (HarperCollins: NY, 1997)

Joel Pfister and Nancy Schnog, eds., Inventing the Psychological:      Toward a Cultural History of Emotional Life in America                                                              (Yale University Press: New Haven, 1997)

Richard Evans, In Defense of History (Norton: NY, 1999)

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

 

A Few Favorite Historically-Informed American Fiction Works

 

Max Byrd, Jefferson: A Novel (1993) and Jackson: A Novel (1998)

Don DeLillo, Libra (1988) and Underworld  (1997)

E.L. Doctorow’sTrilogy(in historical, not publication, order).     Welcome to Hard Times  (1960) Ragtime (1975), The                                                                       Book of Daniel.(1971).  Also his Billy Bathgate       

                        (1985) World’s Fair (1989), andWaterworks (1994)

John Dos Passos, U.S.A. (trilogy)

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

Joseph Heller, Catch-22  (!961)

Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove (1985)

Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977)

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1970)

Phillip Roth’s “Zuckerman Bound” Trilogy.  Ghost Writer, (1979)            Zuckerman Unbound (1981), and The Anatomy Lesson                                                               (1983).  Also his American Pastoral (1997) and The Plot

                        Against America (2004)

John Updike’s “Rabbit Quartet.” Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux    (1970), Rabbit Is Rich (1980), and Rabbit at Rest (1990).

                        His novella Rabbit Remembered appears in Licks of

                        Love (2000).Also his In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996).

Gore Vidal’s “American Chronicles” series (in historical, not      publication, order).  Burr (1973), Lincoln (1984), 1876                                                                        (1976), Empire (1987), Hollywood (1990), Golden Age

 (2000) and Washington, D.C. (1967). Also his Smithsonian Institution (1998).

 

 

Excellent British, Australian and Canadian Writers of Historically-

                          Informed Fiction

           

Peter Ackroyd, Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker, Julian Barnes, Anthony Burgess, A.S. Byatt, Peter Carey, Penelope Fitzgerald, John Fowles, William Golding, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Alice Munro, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain.

 

 

 

Beginning Books on Film, Popular Culture, and Celebrity

 

James Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction

                        (1976)

Melvin DeFleur, Theories of Mass Communication (1989)

Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen, Channels of Desire: Mass Images and

                        The Shaping of American Consciousness (1992)

Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented

                        Hollywood (1988)

__________, Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of

                        Celebrity (1994)

__________, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered

                        Reality (1999)

Barry Grant, Film Genre Reader II (1995)

Robert Hughes, The Culture of Complaint

Gerald Mast, ed., Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory

                        Readings (1992)

Michael Parenti, Make Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment

                        (1991)

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death;: Public Discourse

                        In the Age of Show Business (1986)

Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of

                        America (1994)

Vivian Sobchak, Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of

                        Film Experience (1992)

George W.S. Trow, My Pilgrim’s Progress: Media Studies,

                        1950-1998 (1999)

 

Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and

                        Television Studies and the Historians Film Committee

                        www.h-net.msu.edu/~filmhis/

                       

 

************************************************************************************************************************

 

Books by RLR (in chronological order)

 

              1.  Rapson, Richard L., ed. (1967). Individualism and Conformity in the American Character.  New York: D.C. Heath.

 

               2.  Rapson, R. L. (1971).  Britons View America: Travel Commentary, 1860-1935 .  Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

 

3.                        Rapson, R. L., ed. (1971). The Cult of Youth in

 Middle-Class America.  New York: D.C. Heath.

 

               4. Rapson, R.L., ed. (1972). Major Interpretations of the American Past. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

 

               5.  Rapson, R. L. (1977).  The Pursuit of Meaning: America 1600-2000. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.

 

               6.  Rapson, R. L. (1978).  Denials of Doubt: An Interpretation of American History.  Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.

 

               7.  Rapson, R. L. (1980).  Fairly Lucky You Live Hawaii!  Cultural Pluralism in the Fiftieth State.  Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

 

               8.  Rapson, R. L. (1988).  American Yearnings: Love, Money, and Endless Possibility  Lanham, MD.: University Press of America.

 

            9.  Hatfield, Elaine, & Rapson, R. L. (l993).  Love, sex, and intimacy:  Their psychology, biology, and history.  New York: HarperCollins.

 

            10.  Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, John, & Rapson, R. L. (l994).  Emotional contagion.  New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

11.Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R. L. (1996).  Love and sex:  Cross-

 cultural perspectives.  New York: Allyn & Bacon.

 

12. Hatfield, E. & Rapson, R.L. (2000) Rosie.  Pittsburgh, PA:

  SterlingHouse

 

13.Hatfield, E. & Rapson, R.L. (2003) Recovered Memories. New

  York: Xlibris (Random House)

 

14. Hatfield, E. & Rapson, R.L. (2003) Darwin’s Law. New

   York: Xlibris (Random House)

 

15               . Rapson, R.L. (2003) Amazed By Life: Confessions of a

   Non-Religious Believer.  New York: Xlibris (Random House)

 

 

 

 

 

Books of Interest in Psychological History,* denoting excellent overviews and listed in chronological order:

 

Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood (Vintage: New York,1965)

*Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage: In England 1500-1800 (Harper: NY,                      1977)  

 Emmanuel Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: Promised Land of Error (Vintage: NY, 1978)  

 *Carl Degler, At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the                      Present (Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 1980)

John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay

                                    People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the

                                    Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (U. of Chicago

                                    Press: Chicago, 1981)  

Lois Banner, American Beauty ( U. of Chicago Press: Chicago and London, 1983)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, vol. 1: Education of the Senses  (Oxford U. Press:               Oxford, 1984)

*John Gillis, For Better, For Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the

                                   Present (Oxford U. Press: NY and Oxford, 1985)

Judith Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy  (Oxford                  

                          U. Press: NY and  Oxford, 1986)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience,   vol. 2: The Tender Passion (Oxford U. Press:                   Oxford, 1986)

Alan Macfarlane, Marriage and Love in England: Modes of Reproduction,

                                    1300-1840 (Blackwell: London, 1986)

Beth Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat: A History of Courtship in America (Johns                   Hopkins U. Press: Baltimore,1988)

*Stephanie Coontz, The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families,

                                    1600-1900 (NY: 1988)

*John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in

                                    America  (Harper & Row: NY, 1988) Second edition:

                                    (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1997)

*Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American

                                    Family Life (Free Press: NY, 1988)

R. Phillips, Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western Society (Cambridge U.

                                    Press: Cambridge and NY, 1988)

Karen Lystra, Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-

                                    Century America  (Oxford U. Press: NY and Oxford, 1989)

Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud

                                    (Zone Books: NY, 1990)

*Lawrence Stone, The Road to Divorce: England 1530-1987 (Oxford: NY, 1990)       Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia

                                    Trap (Basic Books, NY: 1992)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience,  vol. 3: Hate and Aggression

                                    (Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 1993)

Robert L. Griswold, Fatherhood in America: A History (Basic Books: NY, 1993)

Barbara Hanawalt, Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood

                                    In History (Oxford U. Press: London, 1993)

Elaine Hatfield and Richard L. Rapson, Love, Sex, and Intimacy:                Their Psychology,

                                    Biology, and History  (HarperCollins: NY and London, 1993)

Lynn Hunt, ed. The Invention of Pornography (Zone Books: NY, 1993)

   E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the                                    Revolution to the Modern Era (Basic Books: NY, 1993)

Guido Ruggiero, Binding Passion: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the

                        End of the Renaissance (Oxford U. Press: London, 1993)

  Janet Brodie, Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth-Century America

                                     (Cornell U. Press: Ithaca, N.Y., 1994)

   Michael Mason, The Making of Victorian Sexuality (Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 1994)

   Patricia Anderson, When Passion Reigned: Sex and the Victorians  (Basic Books: NY,                           1995)

Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography (Houghton Mifflin: NY, 1995)                                                        

 

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and

                        The Body (U. of California Press: Berkeley, 1995)

   John Boswell, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe (Vintage: NY, 1995)

   Vern Bullough, Science in the Bedroom: A History of Sex Research (Basic Books: NY,                           1995)

   George Chauncey, Gay New York; Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of

                        The Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (Basic Books: NY, 1995)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience,  vol. 4: The Naked Heart  (Norton: NY, 1995)

Gary Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual                           

                                Masquerade  (Basic Books: NY, 1995)

Jonathan Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality (Dutton: NY, 1995)

Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans

                                    And the Pursuit of Happiness (New York, 1995)

   Peter N. Stearns, American Cool: Constructing A 20th-Century Emotional Style (NYU                              Press; NY, 1995)

Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins:  Three Seventeenth-Century Lives                           

                                    (Harvard: Cambridge, MA., 1996)

Emma Donoghue, Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801 

                          (HarperCollins: NY, 1996)

   Catalina de Erauso: Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the

                        New World (Beacon: NY, 1996)

Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England 1500-1800 (Yale U.           Press: New Haven, 1996)

John Gillis, A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Ritual, and the Quest for

                                Family Values (Basic Books: NY, 1996)

Elaine Hatfield and Richard L. Rapson, Love and Sex: Cross-Cultural

                                    Perspectives (Allyn & Bacon: NY, 1996)

Margaret Hunt, The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England,                         

                                    1680-1780 (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1996)

*Olwen Hutton, The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe.                        

                                    Volume 1, 1500-1800 (Knopf: NY, 1996)

Ruth Karras, Common Women; Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England

                                    (Oxford U. Press: London, 1996)

Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (The Free Press: NY, 1996)

   Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant Ragan, Homosexuality in Modern France

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1996)

George Mosse, The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity

                        (Oxford U. Press: London, 1996)

Mary Beth Norton, Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of

                                    American Society (Knopf: NY, 1996)

Frank Sulloway, Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives                          

                                (Pantheon Books: NY, 1996)

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls                           

                                    (Random House: NY, 1997)

Candace Clark, Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life (U. of Chicago Press:                  

                                    Chicago, 1997)

Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing                 

                                    Families (Basic Books: NY, 1997)

Grace Palladino, Teenagers: An American History (Basic Books: NY, 1997)

Brenda E. Stevenson, Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave                        

                                    South  (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1997)

Marilyn Yalom, A History of the Breast  (Knopf: NY, 1997)

John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in

                                    Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance

                                    (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1998)

John R. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art,                         

                                    100BC-AD250 (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1998)

Gary Cross, Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Harvard                  

                                    U. Press: Cambridge, 1998)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, vol. 5: Pleasure Wars (Norton: NY, 1998)

Julia Grant, Raising Baby By the Book (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 1998)

Elizabeth Haiken, Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery (Johns Hopkins Univ.                      

                                    Press: Baltimore, 1998)

Marianne Hirsch, Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory (Harvard                      U. Press: Cambridge, 1998)

James H. Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life  (Norton: NY, 1998)

Charles Kaiser, The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996 (Houghton Mifflin: NY, 1998)

John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men’s Lives and Gay Identities--

                                    A Twentieth-Century History (Holt: NY, 1998)

Kathy Peiss, Hope In a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture (Metropolitan                        

                                    Books: NY, 1998)

Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in

                                    Renaissance Florence (Oxford U. Press: NY, 1998)

Merril Smith, ed., Sex and Sexuality in Early America (NYU Press: NY, 1998)

Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis, eds., An Emotional History of the United States (NYU                      

                                    Press: NY, 1998)

Susan Bordo,  The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private

                                    (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: NY, 1999)

Martha Hodes, ed., Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North

                                    American History (NYU Press: NY, 1999)

Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crosby, Women in Early Modern England,

                                    1550-1720 (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1999)

Steven Ozment, Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany

                                    (Viking: NY, 1999)

Daphne Patai, Heterophobia: Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism

                                    (Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, MD, 1999)

Sarah Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical

                                    Antiquity (NY, 1999)

Peter Stearns, Battleground of Desire: The Struggle for Self Control

                                    In Modern America (NYU Press: NY, 1999)

John Tosh, A Man’s Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home In

                                    Victorian England (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 1999)

Randolph Trumbach, Sex and the Gender Revolution, vol. 1 Hetero-

                                    Sexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment

                                    London, (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1999)

Sharon Ullman, Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America

                                    (Univ. of Calif. Press: Berkeley, 1999)

Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Celibacy (Scribner: NY, 2000)

Carol Groneman, Nymphomania: A History (Norton: NY, 2000)

Christine Stansell, American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation

                                    Of a New Century (Henry Holt: NY, 2000)

Nancy Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation

                                    (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge, 2001)

Joanne Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice (Oxford U. Press:

                                    London, 2001)

Hendrik Hartog, Man and Wife in America: A History (Harvard U.

                                    Press: Cambridge, 2001)

Paula Kamen, Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution

                                    (NYU Press: NY, 2001)

John Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect White Man: The White Male

                                    Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America

                                    (Hill & Wang: NY, 2001)

Lynne Luciano, Looking Good: Male Body Image in Modern America

                                    (Hill & Wang: NY, 2001)

Lara Marks, Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill

                                    (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 2001)

James McMillan, France and Women 1789-1914: Gender Society,

                                    And Politics (Routledge: London, 2001)

Andrea Tone, Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America

                                    (NY: Hill &Wang, 2001)

Marilyn Yalom, A History of the Wife (HarperCollins: NY, 2001)

Joan DeJean, The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern

                                    France (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2002)

Richard Godbeer, Sexual Revolution in Early America (Johns Hopkins Press:

                                    Baltimore, 2002)

Betsy Israel, Bachelor Girl: The Secret History of Single Women in the

                                    Twentieth Century (William Morrow: NY, 2002)

Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality

                                    (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2002)

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Rereading Sex: Battles Over Sexual Knowledge

                                    In Nineteenth-Centry America (Knopf: NY, 2002)

Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the

                                    United States (2002)

Catherine Orenstein, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and

                                     the Evolution of a Fairy Tale (Basic Books: NY, 2002) 

Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children (Yale U. Press: New Haven, 2002)

Steven Ozment, Ancestors: The Loving Family in Old Europe (Harvard

                                    U. Press: Cambridge, 2002)

   Georges Vigarello, A History of Rape: Sexual Violence in France from the 16th

                                    To the 20th Century (Polity Press: London, 2002)

Barbara Harris, English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550: Marriage and

                                    Family, Property and Careers (Oxford: London, 2003)

   Christian Henriot, Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History,

                                    1849-1949 (Cambridge U. Press: London, 2003)

Ann Hulbert, Raising America: Experts, Parents and a Century of Advice About

                                    Children (Knopf: NY, 2003)

   Thomas Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (Zone Books

                                    NY, 2003)

   Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge,

                                    2004)

   Graham Robb, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century (Norton:

                                    NY, 2004)

  Sheila and David Rothman, The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils

                                    Of Medical Enhancements (Pantheon Books: NY, 2004)

 

************************************************************

 

Books of Interest in Psychological History,* denoting excellent overviews and listed in alphabetical order:

 

 

Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Celibacy (Scribner: NY, 2000)

   Patricia Anderson, When Passion Reigned: Sex and the Victorians  (Basic

                                    Books: NY, 1995)

Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography (Houghton Mifflin: NY, 1995)                                                        

Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood (Vintage: New York,1965)  

Beth Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat: A History of Courtship in America (Johns

                                    Hopkins U. Press: Baltimore,1988)

Lois Banner, American Beauty ( U. of Chicago Press: Chicago and London, 1983)

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and

                                    The Body (U. of California Press: Berkeley, 1995)

________, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private

                                    (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: NY, 1999)

John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay

                                    People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the

                                    Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (U. of Chicago

                                    Press: Chicago, 1981)

   _________, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe (Vintage: NY, 1995)

_________, The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in

                                    Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance

                        (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1998)

   Janet Brodie, Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth-Century America

                                     (Cornell U. Press: Ithaca, N.Y., 1994)

Judith Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy  (Oxford                  

                                    U. Press: NY and  Oxford, 1986)

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls                           

                                    (Random House: NY, 1997)

Vern Bullough, Science in the Bedroom: A History of Sex Research (Basic Books: NY,                                          

                                    1995)

George Chauncey, Gay New York; Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay

                                    Male World, 1890-1940 (Basic Books: Ny, 1995)

Candace Clark, Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life (U. of Chicago Press:                  

                                    Chicago, 1997)

John R. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art,                         

                                    100BC-AD250 (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1998)

*Stephanie Coontz, The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families,

                                    1600-1900 (NY: 1988)

_____________, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia

                                 Trap (Basic Books, NY: 1992)

_____________, The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing                     Families (Basic Books: NY, 1997)

Nancy Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation

                                    (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge, 2001)

   Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard U. Press: Cambridge,

                                    2004)

Gary Cross, Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Harvard                  

                                    U. Press: Cambridge, 1998)

Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins:  Three Seventeenth-Century Lives                           

                                    (Harvard: Cambridge, MA., 1996)

*Carl Degler, At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the

                                    Present (Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 1980)

Joan DeJean, The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern

                                    France (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2002)

*John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in

                                    America  (Harper & Row: NY, 1988) Second edition:

                                    (U. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1997)

Emma Donoghue, Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801 

                                      (HarperCollins: NY, 1996)

Catalina de Erauso: Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World                 

                                    (Beacon: NY, 1996)

Joanne Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice (Oxford U. Press:

                                    London, 2001)

Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England 1500-1800 (Yale U.           Press: New Haven, 1996)

Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, vol. 1: Education of the Senses (Oxford U. Press:

                                    Oxford, 1984)

________, ___________________,  vol. 2: The Tender Passion (Oxford U.