The North American Conference on British Studies

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Jessica A. Gerard
Reviewed work(s):
A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England by John Tosh
Source: Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Autumn,
2000), pp. 522-523
Published by: The North American Conference on British Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4053953
Accessed: 05/09/2010 08:35

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522 Albion

throwhim in jail for these self-regardingactions,because thatwould be punishment,which

is not permissiblefor a self-regardingact. But I may regardhim with distasteand contempt,
which is his penalty for being a slob. Is this coercion on my part?For Hamburgerit is.
Another example may be found in Hamburger'sequating "express our distaste" and
"attemptingto restrain,"and thus finding Mill contradictory:"Milltells us we may express
our distasteto the person with self-regardingfaults 'if he displeasesus.' Yet he had already
deniedthe proprietyof attemptingto restrainsomeone for reasonof 'meredispleasure'" (p.
214). Mill's readercan see how the expression of distaste might have a restrainingeffect;
but there is enormous difference between that restraintand the kind imposed by law, or
physical force, or even the moral pressureexerted by society as a whole ratherthan an
individualneighbor.For Hamburger,however, "while there would be no impediment[to
our neighbor's actions], the consequences-distaste cr contempt-would discouragemak-
ing the same choice on futureoccasions"(p. 220). This makes sense as a criticismof Mill's
idea of liberty only if one's idea of freedom means freedom from any criticism for all
self-regardingacts.This criticism,however,is crucialto Hamburger'sunderstandingof Mill.
Overall,this is a lively, stimulating,but ultimatelyfrustratingwork.

Florida InternationalUniversity ALAN S. KAHAN

John Tosh.A Man's Place: Masculinityand the Middle-ClassHome in VictorianEngland.

New Haven,Conn.:YaleUniversityPress. 1999. Pp. xii, 252. $30.00. ISBN 0-300-07779-3.

The Victorianmiddle-classhome was regardedas women's sphere;they were in chargeof

housekeepingand child rearing.Men's was the public sphereoutside the home, especially
now that they had become sole providersof the family's income. The ideal of domesticity
stressedthe home's new function as a privateretreat,men's refuge from the harshoutside
world, where women, as moral exemplars,inspiredand rejuvenatedthem. The impact of
these ideas on women has been long exploredby historians,and has reacheda high level of
sophistication,with works like Leonore Davidoff's and CatherineHall's Family Fortunes
(1987), exploring late-eighteenthand early nineteenth-centurymiddle-class Evangelical
origins, and M. Jeanne Peterson's Family, Love, and Work in the Lives of Victorian
Gentlewomen(1989), which shows that upper-middle-classwomen moved freely into the
public world theoretically assigned to men. The male experience of Separate Spheres,
however, has been surprisinglyneglectedin Britishhistory.Littleattentionhas been paid to
the impactof domesticityon men. When they came home afterwork, how did they fit into
this new regime?
John Tosh, Professorof History at the University of North London, helped pioneer the
studyof Victorianmasculinity,co-editingManfulAssertions:Masculinitiesin Britainsince
1800 in 1991. Now, in this path-breaking,well-writtenandentertainingbook he shows that
while early- and mid-Victorianmiddle-class men struggled with the contradictionsand
conflicts of redefmingtheirroles, therewas in fact a clearperceptionthatmen not only had
every right to participatein domesticity,but that their masculinitydependedon it. To be
successful as men, they were expected to marryand form theirown household, supporting
andprotectingtheirdependants,while assertingtheirproperauthorityover them.Withinthe
home, they should be companionatehusbandsand affectionatefathers,enjoying domestic
recreationsand sociability.The early-VictorianEvangelicalrevivalenhancedmen's domes-
tic importanceby reviving their role as God's representativein the home, leading family
 Reviews of Books 523

religious observances. The rituals of patriarchywere still performed,to perpetuatethe

impression of male dominance. Yet, acknowledgingthat the mother's greaterpower and
influence was underminingtheir key task of raising sons to successful manhood,middle-
class fathersincreasinglysent their sons to public schools.
This step actuallycontributedto a growing distastefor marriageand domesticity.In two
fascinatingfinal chapters,Tosh shows how large numbersof late-Victorianmiddle-class
men rejectedor postponed marriagein favor of the homosocial worlds of public schools,
universitycolleges, sports,clubs, settlementhouses,andservicein theEmpire.As the decline
of religion, women's emancipation,and the Romanticideal of childhoodmade patriarchal
dominanceover the family less socially acceptable,a new vision of masculinityemerged,
shapedby public schools for boys, team sports,adventurefiction, and imperialism.Men no
longer neededa householdto satisfy theiremotionalneeds, or to be regardedas a successful
male.
While the firsttwo chapters'full explanationsof the economic, ideological, andreligious
originsof SeparateSpheresanddomesticityareof most interestto those unfamiliarwith this
material,subsequentchaptersarea balanceddiscussionof theirimpact,combiningsupport-
ing evidence thatthe prescriptiveliteraturewas followed by many, with an examinationof
exceptions to the rule and the diversityof actualexperience.The continuingimportanceof
homosocial association,andpublic duties,kept men away from home, for instance,and the
assertionof extremegenderdifferencesunderminedexpectationsof egalitariancompanion-
ship between spouses. The same men, however, are cited repeatedlyas examples, and one
begins to wonder if a sample of just sixty families is sufficient. Daniel Minertzhagenis
presentedas a mid-Victorianabstractedand absentee father,but, with the first of his ten
children born in 1875, he serves better as an instance of the late-Victorianretreatfrom
domesticity. We need many more cases to create an even clearer picture of Victorian
middle-classmen's responseto domesticity.Also missing is sufficientcomparisonwithmen
in the other classes to define the middle-classexperience more precisely. Landowners,for
instance, had greaterclaim to continuingpatriarchalsovereignty,yet had ample leisure to
enjoy companionatemarriageand the company of their children. Early-Victorianland-
owners often embracedpious domesticitywith enthusiasm,as partof theirclass's effortsto
reform.Nevertheless, younger sons had high rates of bachelorhood.Arounda thirdnever
marriedthroughoutthe Victorianera: clearly domesticity was not an essential component
of their masculine identity. Similarly, how far, when, and in what circumstances,did
working-classmen embracedomesticity?This valuablestudywill promptfurtherresearch,
to place middle-classmen in a complete pictureof Victorianmasculinity.

Springfield,Missouri JESSICA
A. GERARD

Uday Singh Mehta.Liberalismand Empire:A Studyin Nineteenth-CenturyBritish Social

Thought.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1999. Pp. xii, 237. $17.00. ISBN
0-226-51882-5.

How was it possible that the Britishcould embraceliberaldoctrinesof individualfreedom

and political representationat precisely the same time they were extendingtheirautocratic
authorityover colonized peoples across the globe? This questionhas generateda good deal
of interest in recent years, both from imperial historianslike Thomas Metcalf and Lynn
Zastoupil and from postcolonial critics like Javed Majeed and Sara Suleri. It has not,