Resource Post 2

Here's the second installment in my presentation of information sources pertaining to domestic violence, gender roles, and homosocial bonds in early modern England: Sex, Gender, and Subordination in England, 1500-1800, by Anthony Fletcher.

Fletcher's book is easily one of the most comprehensive studies of early English ideas about gender and domestic space that I have encountered over the past several years of studying early English literature. He discusses the idea of the gendered body, the patriarchal construction of society, ideas about femininity and female gender roles, ideas about masculinity and masculine gender roles, the progression of these views from the beginning to the end of the early modern period, and more. He analyzes these aspects utilizing a variety of different sources, such a court cases, literature, recorded history, as well as scholarship by a number of scholars from various fields writing on a variety of topics. If you are at all interested in further reading on ideas about sex and gender as they existed in early modern England, this is the resource to go to.

Further, I mentioned that a major downfall to Dolan's book (which I discussed in yesterday's post) was that there was no comprehensive bibliography with which one could look for further sources on a topic of interest. This is decidedly not the case in Fletcher's book. Fletcher compiles what I would estimate to be well over 500 sources, about one quarter to one third of which are primary and the rest are secondary from a variety of mediums. In this way, if there is a particular subject which Fletcher touches on but doesn't fully explore, there are still numerous sources which he provides that the reader may use to find further, more specific information. Fletcher also makes detailed notes throughout the body of his book, too, which also adds to the incredible comprehensiveness of his work.

Moreover, Fletcher's book is available for preview on Google Books right here. While this is just a preview, you can nonetheless gain a sense of what the book is all about as well as see the table of contents and a few pages from each section. If you are looking for a specific subject, the Google Books preview is also fully searchable, returning results even from pages not up for preview. In this way, you are able to find out if what you are looking for is in the book. I have done this on multiple occasions, as the book is admittedly quite long and finding a 1-2 page entry on a specific subject can become rather frustrating.

All in all then, this book is a wonderful place to start with regard to the topic at hand. It is a great resource in and of itself, yet it is also a great place to look for further sources. I highly recommend this as a resource for anyone interested in gender in early modern England, as I have certainly gotten a fair bit of use out of it over the course of the past several semesters.

Anyhow, see you tomorrow with the next resource.