American Domestic Research Articles

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Although she is often remembered only as the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, there was a time in Catharine Beecher's life when she was more widely known than any member of her eminent family. A pioneering teacher, a writer on moral and religious topics, and an avid publicist for women's education, her name became a household word in the 1840s because of the enormous success of her Treatise on Domestic Economy. This comprehensive guide to all aspects of domestic self-management was part of her effort to create a female domain from which cultural power could be exercised. In the recent reassessment of the historical experience of women, the middle decades of the last century have emerged as a critical period: the movement for women's rights was born, and the genteel cult of the lady and the encumbering customs of domesticity took hold. Present-day attitudes about the family and images of masculine and feminine roles are still strongly shaped by nineteenth-century ideas. Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity examines that era through the life of one of its major protagonists. It offers new insights into the shifting contours of the nineteenth-century female experience and is a signal contribution to the intellectual and social history of the period.

American Domestic Forces and the October War

American Domestic Forces and the October War

American Domestic Forces and the October War

A ccording to Henry Kissinger, decision-making is an elitist exercise..., but the acid test of a policy is its ability to obtain domestic support.' Domestic support for or opposition to foreign policy is conveyed through public opinion, mass media and interest groups. It expresses itself in various forms, ranging from letter-writing and editorializing to demonstrations and bomb-throwing. The domestic structures function as important inputs into the making of foreign policy, and define the broad internal limits within which decision-makers feel compelled to operate. A similar outer limit, comprising inputs from the international system, forms a constraint on the decision-makers.

Three American Lives

Joseph J. Ellis. The New England Mind in Transi- tion: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696-1772. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1973. 292 pp. Louis R. Harlan. Booker T. Washington: The Mak- ing of a Black Leader 1856-1901. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. 379 pp. Kathryn Kish Sklar. Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973. 356 pp. Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth century Episcopalian minister who was the first president of Columbia College, Catharine Esther Beecher, a nine- teenth century pioneer in women's education and "domestic economy," and Booker T. Washington, the conservative leader of the black move- ment for self-advancement and self-education at the turn of the century, are the subjects of the three biographies under review. These figures have more in common than might at first seem apparent. All three were mem- bers of what one could call minority groups in their respective societies. They aspired to and achieved leadership positions. Their work and thought occupied a place somewhere between the realms of popular and élite culture. They sought to bring about change through fundamentally conservative means. Despite their minority group status, or perhaps be- cause of it, none of them had any real faith in the democratic process. They compromised in sometimes nearly crippling ways with the dominant powers of their milieu. Finally, all three pose a similar question for the modern biographer: what approach is most appropriate for the treatment of a figure pivotal in what must be defined not as a counter-culture but as a subculture in his or her world?

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity

Examples of American Domestic Architecture

Examples of American Domestic Architecture

Harold L. Peterson. Americans at Home: From the Colonists to the Late Victorians. A Pictorial Source Book of American Domestic Interiors with an Appendix on Inns and Taverns. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1971. Pp. xviii, 205 plates. $14.95

Harold L. Peterson. <italic>Americans at Home: From the Colonists to the Late Victorians. A Pictorial Source Book of American Domestic Interiors with an Appendix on Inns and Taverns</italic>. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1971. Pp. xviii, 205 plates. $14.95

The Origins of American Agriculture

When prehistoric cultural developments in the Old and New World are compared, one difference is outstanding. The American Indian domesticated an inordinately large number of plants. This is even more remarkable when one considers that the prehistoric population of the Americas was very much less than that of the Old World and, also, that the development of American civilization began very much later.During the last 25 years, archaeological investigations in the New World have revealed considerable information about prehistoric plant domestication and agriculture. Although this data is far from complete, it is now possible to establish some hypotheses, not only about the origin and spread of several American domesticates, but also about the effect of plant domestication, and later agriculture, upon cultural development and process in the New World.

Erratum: Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture

Erratum: Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture

Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture

Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture

Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture

THE Japanese elements incorporated in contemporary American dwellings are now so numerous and readily recognized that it is no longer necessary to argue the fact of Far Eastern inspiration. The small house, essentially of wood, in close communion with its setting, having a flexible plan and sliding screen walls, with built-in furniture, restraint of decoration, and quiet color schemes largely achieved by the use of unpainted woods and other natural materials, is prevalent throughout America. There remains, however, some question with regard to the exact source, the date, and the manner in which the Japanese characteristics were first accepted.1

The Cold War and American Domestic Problems

possible to prevent honest disagreement among social scientists reflecting differences in interpretations and emphasis, it is nonetheless important to minimize the possibility of the presentation of conflicting testimony by equally competent scientists concerning the available facts. Professional organizations among social scientists now have the obligation to set up some kind of machinery which will prevent social scientists from being haunted by the same spectacle which has long bedeviled the field of psychiatry-two or more psychiatrists offering with equal certainty contradictory testimony concerning the sanity of a given defendent. If social scientists assume the

The Cold War and American Domestic Problems

The Cold War and American Domestic Problems

The Doctor and His Patients: The American Domestic Scene as Viewed by the Family Doctor

The Doctor and His Patients: The American Domestic Scene as Viewed by the Family Doctor

American Domestic Architecture: Use of Bricks

American Domestic Architecture: Use of Bricks

American Domestic Architecture: Use of Bricks

American Domestic Architecture: Use of Bricks

Steamship Line Agreements and Affiliations in the American Foreign and Domestic Trade

Steamship Line Agreements and Affiliations in the American Foreign and Domestic Trade

American Domestic Architecture. II

American Domestic Architecture. II