Focusing on middle-class men in England during the First World War, this book delves into the lives of those who remained on the home front, emphasizing their unique experiences. It highlights that many of these men did not enlist due to reasons like exemption, age, family duties, or physical unfitness, rather than moral objections to the war. By examining how the war affected their practices, relationships, and identities, it sheds light on a largely overlooked aspect of wartime life, challenging the prevailing narratives centered on servicemen.
Exploring the evolution of menswear retailing from 1880 to 1939, this book delves into the complexities of masculine identity and male consumption patterns. It examines how men engaged in activities often deemed 'unmanly,' such as selling and buying clothing, providing fresh insights into their lives and identities during this transformative era. Through this lens, the work highlights the interplay between fashion and masculinity, revealing broader cultural implications.
This book explores the relationship between middle-class fathers and sons in England between c. 1870 and 1920. We now know that the conventional image of the middle-class paterfamilias of this period as cold and authoritarian is too simplistic, but there is still much to be discovered about relationships in middle-class families. Paying especial attention to gender and masculinities, this book focuses on the interactions between fathers and sons, exploring how relationships developed and masculine identities were negotiated from infancy and childhood to adulthood and old age. Drawing on sources as diverse as autobiographies, oral history interviews, First World War conscription records and press reports of violent incidents, this book questions how fathers and sons negotiated relationships marked by shifting relations of power, as well as by different combinations of emotional entanglements, obligations and ties. It explores changes as fathers and sons grew older, and assesses fathers' role in trying to mould sons' masculine identities, characters and lives. It reveals negotiation and compromise, as well as rebellion and conflict, underlining that fathers and sons were important to each other, their relationships a significant - if often overlooked - aspect of middle-class men's lives and identities.
