Winner of the 1995 University of Illinois Press-National Women's Studies Association manuscript prize Women's clubs at the turn of the century were numerous, dedicated to a number of issues, and crossed class, religious, and racial lines. Emphasizing the intimacy engendered by shared reading and writing in these groups, Anne Ruggles Gere contends that these literacy practices meant that club members took an active part in reinventing the nation during a period of major change. Gere uses archival material that documents club members' perspectives and activities around such issues as Americanization, womanhood, peace, consumerism, benevolence, taste, and literature--and offers a rare depth of insight into the interests and lives of American women from the fin de siecle through the beginning of the roaring twenties. Intimate Practices is unique in its exploration of a range of women's clubs--Mormon, Jewish, white middle-class, African American, and working class--and paints a vast and colorful multicultural, multifaceted canvas of these widely-divergent women's groups.
- ISBN10 0252023013
- ISBN13 9780252023019
- Publish Date 1 April 1997
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Illinois Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English