About the Book
The essays in this volume analyze a wide variety of cultural forms to demonstrate the centrality of masculine sentiment in American literary and cultural history from the early republic to the progressive era. Challenging the association of sentimentality exclusively with femininity in studies of American culture the contributors analyze sentimentalism not just as a literary genre but as a structure of feeling manifested in many areas: temperance testimonials begging letters historiography philanthropic performance photography portraiture and poetry. Essays from a variety of disciplines—American studies literature history art gender studies—deconstruct the alignment of reason commerce and the public sphere with men and feelings domesticity and the private sphere with women.