| Mysteries of Sex: Tracing Women and Men through American History Contributor(s): Ryan, Mary P. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807859451 ISBN-13: 9780807859452 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $40.38 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Gender Studies - History | United States - General - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 305.420 |
| LCCN: 2006016540 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.9" W x 9" (1.40 lbs) 448 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In a sweeping synthesis of American history, Mary Ryan demonstrates how the meaning of male and female has evolved, changed, and varied over a span of 500 years and across major social and ethnic boundaries. She traces how, at select moments in history, perceptions of sex difference were translated into complex and mutable patterns for differentiating women and men. How those distinctions were drawn and redrawn affected the course of American history more generally. Ryan recounts the construction of a modern gender regime that sharply divided male from female and created modes of exclusion and inequity. The divide between male and female blurred in the twentieth century, as women entered the public domain, massed in the labor force, and revolutionized private life. This transformation in gender history serves as a backdrop for seven chronological chapters, each of which presents a different problem in American history as a quandary of sex. Ryan's bold analysis raises the possibility that perhaps, if understood in their variety and mutability, the differences of sex might lose the sting of inequality. In a sweeping synthesis of American history, Mary Ryan demonstrates how the meaning of male and female has evolved, changed, and varied over a span of 500 years and across major social and ethnic boundaries. She traces how, at select moments of history, perceptions of sex difference were translated into complex and mutable patterns for differentiating women and men. How those distinctions were drawn and redrawn, Ryan shows, affected the course of American history more generally. Ryan's bold analysis raises the possibility that perhaps, if understood in their variety and mutability, the differences of sex might lose the sting of inequality. |
Contributor Bio(s): Ryan, Mary P.: - Mary P. Ryan is John Martin Vincent Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. Mysteries of Sex returns to -- and fundamentally reinterprets -- the theme of her first book, Womanhood in America (1975). Ryan's other books include Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in Nineteenth Century America; Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880; and Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790-1865. |