Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Moral Problems in American Life : New Perspectives on Cultural History / ed. by Karen Halttunen, Lewis Perry.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]Copyright date: ©1998Description: 1 online resource (368 p.) : 13 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501725494
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 306/.0973 21
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- Problems of Moral Community -- 1. Original Themes of Voluntary Moralism: The Anglo-American Reformation of Manners -- 2. Gothic Mystery and the Birth of the Asylum: The Cultural Construction of Deviance in Early-Nineteenth-Century America -- 3. The World's "Dirty Work" and the Wages That "Sweeten" It: Labor's "Extrinsic Rewards" in Antebellum Society -- 4. Deviance, Dominance, and the Construction of Handedness in Turn-of-the-Century Anglo-America -- Race and the Problem of Slavery -- 5. Black Abolitionists and the Origins of Civil Disobedience -- 6. "The Right to Possess All the Faculties That God Has Given": Possessive Individualism, Slave Women, and Abolitionist Thought -- 7. Worrying about the Civil War -- 8. Caste, Class, and Equal Citizenship -- Religion and Moral Community -- 9. Jewish Prayers for the U.S. Government: A Study in the Liturgy of Politics and the Politics of Liturgy -- 10. Interfaith Families in Victorian America -- 11. Prophetic Ministry and the Military Chaplaincy during the Vietnam Era -- Rewarding Moral Boundaries in Modern America -- 12. Listen, My Children: Modes and Functions of Poetry Reading in American Schools, 1880-1950 -- 13. Talking about Sex: Early-Twentieth-Century Radicals and Moral Confessions -- 14. "What If History Was a Gambler?" -- Afterword. David Brion Davis: A Biographical Appreciation -- Contributors -- Index
Summary: American history is filled with moments of grave moral doubt and institutional crisis, with conflicts over fundamental values, with ethical dilemmas and paradoxes. This volume surveys the moral landscape of the American past from slavery to the Vietnam War. Bringing together fourteen of the most original historians practicing today, the book illuminates a critical dimension of American history, even as it shows how historical study contributes to present-day debates about values and the moral life.These essays examine a wide range of questions that have engaged past generations of Americans and persist into the present—questions about the composition of a moral community and the case for civil disobedience, about the appropriate responses to injustices and inequalities, and about the ethical implications of artistic expression, school curricula, sexual behaviors, and popular media. Focusing on the impact of moral problems on everyday experience, the authors consider these questions in light of reform movements and religious practices; changing social institutions such as marriage, public schools, labor unions, and penitentiaries; and enduring moral forces from the Bible to the U.S. Constitution. Together their essays give historical context to a wide variety of American practices and beliefs and, in doing so, provide a new framework for understanding cultural life.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501725494

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- Problems of Moral Community -- 1. Original Themes of Voluntary Moralism: The Anglo-American Reformation of Manners -- 2. Gothic Mystery and the Birth of the Asylum: The Cultural Construction of Deviance in Early-Nineteenth-Century America -- 3. The World's "Dirty Work" and the Wages That "Sweeten" It: Labor's "Extrinsic Rewards" in Antebellum Society -- 4. Deviance, Dominance, and the Construction of Handedness in Turn-of-the-Century Anglo-America -- Race and the Problem of Slavery -- 5. Black Abolitionists and the Origins of Civil Disobedience -- 6. "The Right to Possess All the Faculties That God Has Given": Possessive Individualism, Slave Women, and Abolitionist Thought -- 7. Worrying about the Civil War -- 8. Caste, Class, and Equal Citizenship -- Religion and Moral Community -- 9. Jewish Prayers for the U.S. Government: A Study in the Liturgy of Politics and the Politics of Liturgy -- 10. Interfaith Families in Victorian America -- 11. Prophetic Ministry and the Military Chaplaincy during the Vietnam Era -- Rewarding Moral Boundaries in Modern America -- 12. Listen, My Children: Modes and Functions of Poetry Reading in American Schools, 1880-1950 -- 13. Talking about Sex: Early-Twentieth-Century Radicals and Moral Confessions -- 14. "What If History Was a Gambler?" -- Afterword. David Brion Davis: A Biographical Appreciation -- Contributors -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

American history is filled with moments of grave moral doubt and institutional crisis, with conflicts over fundamental values, with ethical dilemmas and paradoxes. This volume surveys the moral landscape of the American past from slavery to the Vietnam War. Bringing together fourteen of the most original historians practicing today, the book illuminates a critical dimension of American history, even as it shows how historical study contributes to present-day debates about values and the moral life.These essays examine a wide range of questions that have engaged past generations of Americans and persist into the present—questions about the composition of a moral community and the case for civil disobedience, about the appropriate responses to injustices and inequalities, and about the ethical implications of artistic expression, school curricula, sexual behaviors, and popular media. Focusing on the impact of moral problems on everyday experience, the authors consider these questions in light of reform movements and religious practices; changing social institutions such as marriage, public schools, labor unions, and penitentiaries; and enduring moral forces from the Bible to the U.S. Constitution. Together their essays give historical context to a wide variety of American practices and beliefs and, in doing so, provide a new framework for understanding cultural life.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024)

Previous
Back to results
Next
Close