Devil of the Domestic Sphere: Temperance, Gender, and Middle-class Ideology, 1800-1860

by Scott C. Martin

Overview

Drink, in the minds of antebellum temperance reformers, represented the threat of an increasingly urban, industrial world. Contrasting the drunkards' lack of restraint with their own thrift and sobriety, these members of the emerging middle class lay claim to respectability, virtue, and moral leadership. As they sought to legitimate their own authority, reformers also employed temperance literature to propagate middle-class ideas about the nature of women and their role as guardians of the home.

Stories of women as innocent victims and loving saviors filled temperance literature. Ministers, novelists, and journalists portrayed wives beaten by drunken husbands; poets and songwriters extolled mothers and sisters who rescued men from demon drink. Yet a strand of misogyny also ran through temperance ideology. Denunciation of women as causes of intemperance and snares for men, and celebration of women's victimization often coexisted with a more positive assessment of women's role in the emerging middle class. Unless a woman remained vigilant, she too might succumb to drink, and reformers had very little sympathy for such a fallen angel.

By examining the contradictory images of women employed by the antebellum temperance movement, Scott Martin reveals the reformers' commitment not only to social betterment but also to middle-class interests and a particular gender ideology. Martin explores the reasons why more men than women drank, the ways in which society dealt with women who neglected familial and social obligations to become drunkards, and the consequences of women's failure to eradicate male drunkenness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875806396
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/28/2010
Series:	Drugs and Alcohol Contested Histories
Edition description:	1
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Scott C. Martin is Associate Professor of History and American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University.

Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Temperance Literature and Misogyny 3

1 Female Intemperance 15

2 Victims and Exemplars 39

3 The Suffering Woman 68

4 Female Moral Suasion 87

5 Toward Legislation 106

6 Protecting the Home 124

Conclusion: The Legacy of Middle-class Temperance Ideology 150

Notes 157

Works Cited 181

Index 199

Editorial Reviews

Excellent, solid, and well argued.... Martin takes offense at the many ways in which the temperance movement demeaned and even endangered women, and is sensitive to subtle expressions of misogyny.

Elaine Frantz Parsons

Martin's argument is provocative and important, his documentation exhaustive. He challenges previous scholarship about American women before the Civil War by shifting the focus from anti-slavery to temperance and drink.

David Fahey

A fascinating analysis. An original and needed contribution to the literature of nineteenyh-century female activism.

Journal of Illinois History

A fascinating analysis. An original and needed contribution to the literature of nineteenyh-century female activism.

-- "Journal of Illinois History"

Excellent, solid, and well argued.... Martin takes offense at the many ways in which the temperance movement demeaned and even endangered women, and is sensitive to subtle expressions of misogyny.

--Elaine Frantz Parsons, Duquesne University

Martin's argument is provocative and important, his documentation exhaustive. He challenges previous scholarship about American women before the Civil War by shifting the focus from anti-slavery to temperance and drink.

--David Fahey, Miami University, Ohio

From the Publisher