Battleground of Desire : The Struggle for Self -Control in Modern America / Peter N. Stearns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stearns, Peter N.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Self-control--United States--History--19th century.

Self-control.

Self-control--United States--History--20th century.

United States--Social life and customs--19th century.

United States.

United States--Social life and customs--20th century.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (464 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : New York University Press, [1999]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In recent years, Peter N. Stearns has established himself as the foremost historian of American emotional life. In books on anger, jealousy, ""coolness,"" and body image, he has mapped out the basic terrain of the American psyche. Now Stearns crowns his work of the past decade with this powerful volume, in which he reveals the fundamental dichotomy at the heart of the national character: a self-indulgent hedonism and the famed American informality on the one hand, and a deeply imbedded repressiveness on the other. Whether hunting and gathering tribe or complex industrial civilization, every so

Contents:

CONTENTS; Preface; Acknowledgments; I THE ISSUES; ONE: The Heart of the Matter; TWO: Models and Guidelines; II THE VICTORIAN LEGACY AND THE BEGINNINGS OF CHANGE; THREE: The Victorian Style; FOUR: Transitions; FIVE: Causation; III TWENTIETH-CENTURY STANDARDS; SIX: New Combinations; SEVEN: Sexuality; EIGHT: The Body and Health; NINE: Addiction and Disease; IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS; TEN: Conclusions; ELEVEN: An Agenda for Evaluation and Change; Notes; Index; About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-426) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8147-8682-0

OCLC:

779828375