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

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. 

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.