Domesticity is generally treated as an aspect of women's history. In this fascinating study of the nineteenth-century middle class, John Tosh shows how profoundly men's lives were conditioned by the Victorian ideal and how they negotiated its many contradictions.
Tosh begins by looking at the experience of boyhood, married life, sex, and fatherhood in the early decades of the nineteenth century--illustrated by case studies representing a variety of backgrounds--and then contrasts this with the lives of the late Victorian generation. He finds that the first group of men placed a new value...

Manliness and Masculinities presents an innovative series of studies in the cultural and social history of Nineteenth-Century Britain. The book documents the rapid emergence of a new and increasingly important field, and takes forward the definition of this new field. John Tosh addresses the big issues of theory and periodisation, exploring the relationship between masculinity and patriarchy, and between men's public role and their emotional and domestic lives. These insights inform his sensitive treatment of the history of the Victorian family. In the final section of the book John Tosh...