Men and Manliness on the Frontier - (Genders and Sexualities in History) by R Hogg (Hardcover)

About the Book

What were the lived experiences of men on the frontiers of the British Empire? Using their journals, diaries and letters Robert Hogg examines the dreams, challenges and failures of men seeking their 'independence' on the margins of empire and demonstrates that life in colonial Queensland and British Columbia challenged preconceived ideas of manliness. Men were forced to sacrifice or modify elements of this ideal; some accepted that their manly aspirations were impossible to fulfil. In fact, this ideal of manliness contained a deep paradox. It was inherently contradictory, encompassing physical and mental prowess, caste hierarchies and egalitarianism, heterosexual dominance and the possibility of homoeroticism, Christian piety and the potential for violence and murder.

Book Synopsis

In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, there existed a dominant discourse on what it meant to be a man -denoted by the term 'manliness'. Based on the sociological work of R.W. Connell and others who argue that gender is performative, Robert Hogg asks how British men performed manliness on the colonial frontiers of Queensland and British Columbia.

Review Quotes

"Robert Hogg examines the gendered expectations, manly identities, and lived experiences of British men in mid-nineteenth-century Queensland and British Columbia. ... Hogg's rich attention to men's lived experiences not only makes this an eminently readable book but also helps to deepen existing understandings of mid-nineteenth-century British Columbia. ... Hogg's comparative approach should also be intriguing for readers interested in colonial British Columbia." (Laura Ishiguro, The British Columnian Quartlerly, Vol. 189, April, 2016)

"Robert Hogg's insightful book presents a convincing argument for the cross-referencing of colonial experience within the framework of understanding masculinity." - Queensland Review

"Men and Manliness on the Frontier is an accomplished piece of scholarship. Hogg offers a useful exploration of the ideological and material elements of frontier masculinity and makes good use of the archival treasures at his disposal. This book offers a valuable resource for anyone interested in the interconnections between lives, experiences and ideas in the history of masculinity." - Chris Brickell, Otago University

"Men and Manliness on the Frontier adds to imperial history by describing masculinites as they evolved in two different, yet similar, British colonies ... this work will be useful to historians of British gender and empire as well as those of Canada and Australia." - The Historian

About the Author

ROBERT HOGG lectures in Australian Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia, where he has also taught Australian history, world history, and the history of sex and sexuality. He has also taught at Griffith University, Australia.