These days of large things : the culture of size in America, 1865-1930 / Michael Tavel Clarke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clarke, Michael Tavel.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History--19th century.

Popular culture.

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Size perception--United States--History--19th century.

Size perception.

Size perception--United States--History--20th century.

United States--Civilization--1865-1918.

United States.

United States--Civilization--1918-1945.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The United States at the turn of the twentieth century cultivated a passion for big. It witnessed the emergence of large-scale corporate capitalism; the beginnings of American imperialism on a global stage; record-level immigration; a rapid expansion of cities; and colossal events and structures like world's fairs, amusement parks, department stores, and skyscrapers. Size began to play a key role in American identity. During this period, bigness signaled American progress. These Days of Large Things explores the centrality of size to American culture and national identity and the preoccupation with physical stature that pervaded American thought. Clarke examines the role that body size played in racial theory and the ways in which economic changes in the nation generated conflicting attitudes toward growth and bigness. Finally, Clarke investigates the relationship between stature and gender. These Days of Large Things brings together a remarkable range of cultural material including scientific studies, photographs, novels, cartoons, architecture, and film. As a general cultural and intellectual history of the period, this work will be of interest to students and scholars in American studies, U.S. history, American literature, and gender studies. Michael Tavel Clarke is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Calgary. Cover photograph: New York from Its Pinnacles, Alvin Langdon Coburn (1912). Courtesy of the George Eastman House. A fascinating study of the American preoccupation with physical size, this book charts new paths in the history of science, culture, and the body. A must-read for anyone puzzling over why Americans today love hulking SUVs, Mcmansions, and outsized masculine bodies. ---Lois Banner, University of Southern California From the Gilded Age through the Twenties, Clarke shows a nation-state obsessed with sheer size, ranging from the mammoth labor union to the 'Giant Incorporated Body' of the monopoly trust. These Days of Large Things links the towering Gibson Girl with the skyscraper, the pediatric regimen with stereotypes of the Jew. Spanning anthropology, medicine, architecture, business, and labor history, Clarke provides the full anatomy of imperial America and offers a model of cultural studies at its very best. ---Cecelia Tichi, Vanderbilt University

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Stature and the Discourses of Race

1. Representing the "Pygmies

2. The Height of Civilization: Science and the Management of Stature

Part 2: Size in the Marketplace

3. A Pygmy between Two Giants: The Economic Body in Popular Literature

4. The City of Dreadful Height: Skyscrapers and the Aesthetics of Growth

Part 3: Growing Women, Shrinking Men

5. The Growing Women and the Growing Jew: Mary Antin, the New Woman, and the Immigration Debate

6. The Incredible Industrial Shrinking Man: Upton Sinclair's Challenge to Hegemonic Masculinity

Epilogue: Shrinking Men and Growing Women (Reprise)

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Based on author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2001.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-309) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

ISBN:

1-282-44542-1

9786612445422

0-472-02498-1

OCLC:

646479091