Man’s Estate: Landed Gentry Masculinities, 1660–1900, by Henry French and Mark Rothery

Abstract

Henry French and Mark Rothery’s study of elite masculinities during the long eighteenth century is based on a study of 10–15,000 personal letters from the archives of gentry families. The authors use this enormously rich body of material to examine the processes by which male individuals made the transition to manhood, starting with educational experiences in schools and universities before they turn to apprenticeships, young men’s travels abroad and, finally, fatherhood. The letters allow French and Rothery to demonstrate how individuals manipulated established norms and languages to produce a variety of outcomes, often shifting between different models of masculinity as the occasion demanded. The use of letters also allows the authors to move easily from practices to subjectivities, fully appreciating the fact that ‘male identity was linked intimately not just to the “fact” of being a husband or a father, but to the emotional bonds and burdens that accompanied these positions’ (p. 232). Particularly welcome is the sensitive reading of women’s role in reproducing forms of masculinity: whether as mothers or sisters, gentry women took an active role in both inculcating and policing acceptable forms of masculinity.