Fortune, Fame, and Desire: Promoting the Self in the Long Nineteenth Century by Sharon Hartman Strom

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fortune, Fame, and Desire: Promoting the Self in the Long Nineteenth Century by Sharon Hartman Strom Yvette J. Saavedra Fortune, Fame, and Desire: Promoting the Self in the Long Nineteenth Century. Sharon Hartman Strom. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. 2016. ISBN 978-1-4422-7265-1. 260 pp., cloth, $39.50 In Fortune, Fame, and Desire: Promoting the Self in the Long Nineteenth Century, historian Sharon Strom examines the marketplace development of the period between 1820 and 1910 with a perspective that shifts the historiographic focus from the rise of entrepreneurship and the development of a sophisticated economy to one emphasizing individualism and the commodification of the self (xi). Geographically, her study is centered in the mid-Atlantic states, New England, and Ohio, with a tangential discussion of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Framing her study within the contours of the long nineteenth century's social, economic, and political changes, Strom argues that "the growth of urban culture, the explosion of a vast print industry, and new forums for public speaking created expansive arenas for self-presentation" in the two decades preceding the Civil War (xi). She contends that broader changes in education for women, the negotiating and questioning of religious orthodoxy, the rise of reform groups, the growth of popularity of public lectures, and the increased acceptability of theater created opportunities for middle-class individuals to create their public images, improve their social and economic status, and disrupt accepted gender and racial norms. Organized into seven chapters, this largely biographical work provides detailed narratives of the lives of men and women such as diplomat, writer, and novelist Ephraim George Squier; stage actress Lola Montez; publishers Miriam Follin and Frank Leslie; abolitionists, activists, and writers Francis Watkins Harper, Anna [End Page 321] Dickinson, Laura Briggs James; and spiritualists Harriet Green Wilson and Warren Chase among others to illustrate how their written works—such as novels, weeklies, and travel literature—as well as their public performances, and social activism provided an avenue to create their fame and acquire their fortunes and material desires. Building on cultural historian Eric Lott and media scholar Linda Williams's view of melodrama as a device for talking about the end of slavery, immigration, northern race relations, racial mixing, the decline of sexual propriety, and the "dissatisfaction of domesticity," Strom contends that these biographical narratives show how men and women—white, black, and racially mixed—negotiated their places within a changing social reality and context (xv). By highlighting the promotion of the self in the lives and works of these middle-class people, Strom disrupts views of the nineteenth century as one of Victorian "stuffiness and conformity," pointing instead to the existence of personal independence, adventure, and the pushing of boundaries of social acceptability (xiii). For example, the nontraditional living arrangement of Squire, Follin, and Leslie; Montez's flouting of gender propriety through stage performance and dance; and the transgression of racial and sexual boundaries through same-sex and interracial sexual relations and desires all demonstrate how these historical actors defined, redefined, and rejected societal notions of gender, race, sexuality, and morality (57, 42, 41, 45, 88, 133). Although Strom's discussion of sexuality and morality through Squire, Follin, Leslie, and Montez's lives describes their contesting of sexual and gender norms, she is remiss in analyzing many of these examples and often remains on the level of description. This work's strength lies in Strom's discussion of race, gender, abolition, women's suffrage, and black civil rights. Specifically, the chapters on Francis Harper, Harriet Wilson, Anna Dickinson, and Laura Briggs James provide a clear and strong analysis of the confluence of various historical moments, politics, and identities. These chapters weave a story, aside from the individual biographies, that shows how these women's literary works, activism, and lives created their identities as well as influenced broader society. Written for a general audience, this book's in-depth biographical narratives provide great detailed information about specific historical actors. Readers unfamiliar with the broader social and cultural history of the nineteenth century may find the work difficult to follow but if they read alongside works that help contextualize the era, they will appreciate...