Negotiating Masculinities and Modernity in the Maritime World, 1815-1940

This book explores ideas of masculinity in the maritime world in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. During this time commerce, politics and technology supported male privilege, while simultaneously creating the polite, consumerist and sedentary lifestyles that were perceived as damaging the minds and bodies of men. This volume explores this paradox through the figure of the sailor, a working-class man whose representation fulfilled numerous political and social ends in this period. It begins with the enduring image of romantic, heroic veterans of the Napeolonic wars, takes the reader through the challenges to masculinities created by encounters with other races and ethnicities, and with technological change, shifting geopolitical and cultural contexts, and ends with the fragile portrayal of masculinity in the imagined Nelson. In doing so, this edited collection shows that maritime masculinities (ideals, representations and the seamen themselves) were highly visible and volatile sites for negotiating the tensions of masculinities with civilisation, race, technology, patriotism, citizenship, and respectability during the long nineteenth century.

Shows that maritime masculinities were highly visible and volatile sites for negotiating cultural tensions Explores the changing relationship between masculinity and modernity in the maritime sphere Sheds new light on the figure of the sailor as a site of cultural negotiation

Autorentext

Karen Downing is a researcher and casual lecturer at the Australian National University. Her research interests are in the history of masculinities, emotions, and culture.

Johnathan Thayer is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York. He teaches and conducts research in archival studies, public history, and the intersections of urban and maritime history in U.S. ports.

Joanne Begiato is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University. She specialises in the history of masculinities, emotions, material culture, family, and marriage.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction: A Sailor's Progress?.- Chapter 2: Regency Masculinity? Napoleonic War Veterans and ExplainingChange in the History of Masculinities.- Chapter 3: 'He Was Possessed of the Very First Natural Abilities': American Mariners' Construction of Masculinity on the Far Side of the World.- Chapter 4: 'A Splendid Body of Men': Fishermen as Model Males in Late-Nineteenth-Century British Imagery.- Chapter 5: Displaying the Wooden Walls of Old England: The HMS Foudroyant as a Monument to Lost Skills and Manhood, 18921897.- Part II Technology and Contestation.- Chapter 6: 'A Real Men's Profession': Finnish Sailors and Masculinities at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century.- Chapter 7: Row, Row, Row Your Boat: How the Marine Corps Engendered Landing Parties, 18981918.- Chapter 8: 'Our Future Lies Upon the Water': Redemptive Manhood and Maritime Labour Reform in the Wilhelmine Era in Germany.- Part III Patriotism, Citizenship, and Respectability.- Chapter 9: 'Sailors' Homes': Sailors' Boarding Houses, Maritime Reform, and Contested Domestic Space in New York's Sailortown.- Chapter 10: Saving H.M.S. Victory: Admiral Nelson, Anti-socialism, and Heroic Masculinity.- Chapter 11: Navalism and Masculinity Before the First World War.- Part IV Nascent and Fragile Masculinities.- Chapter 12: Nelson Was No Milksop: Overcoming Frailty on Film in 1918.- Chapter 13: Epilogue: Manhood Found and Lost at Sea: The Loss of the Eurydice.