Description
Birgitte Soland addresses longstanding questions in the history of women and gender in the industrialized world: What was 'modernity,' and how did it change the practice of everyday life? Soland spells out her answers through the words of Danish women who forged new styles and new ideals that challenged tradition without overthrowing the hierarchies of gender. The book is carefully researched, clearly argued, and crisply written. -- Joanne Meyerowitz, Indiana University Becoming Modern is a most impressive exploration of the large issues of modernity, consumer culture, leisure, the body, and sexuality in the context of a small country. Birgitte Soland deftly reconstructs the revolt of women coming of age in 1920s Denmark. Refusing to privilege either cultural discourse or social experience, Soland's richly textured analysis explores the complex ways in which discourse constructed the modern girl/woman and young women, in turn, shaped debates around gender. Becoming Modern is both essential and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in gender and modernity. -- Mary Nolan, New York University This unique study of women in twentieth-century Denmark contributes to the field of women's history-and the specific area of gender and modernity-in multiple ways. It examines the process of modernization throughout women's life cycle, focusing on both young single and older married women. As one of the few full-length English-language historical studies of Scandinavian women, it is essential to the current project of women's history, which is becoming increasingly internationalized and comparative. -- Sonya A. Michel, author of "Children's Interests / Mother's Rights: The Shaping of America's Child Care Policy" This is a significant contribution to European, social, gender, and cultural history because it chronicles the modernity of everyday life and challenges the dominant interpretations of interwar struggles over gender as grounded in the experience of war. The case of Denmark makes debate of these theories high on the historical agenda. And because the story is told in such a lively and clear manner, the book will have wider appeal than the case of Denmark might suggest. Scholars in a number of fields who puzzle over modernity will find this a useful, accessible treatment of social and cultural modernity. The book is terrific to read, a real pleasure. -- Bonnie Smith, author of "The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice"
About the Author
Birgitte Soland is Assistant Professor of History at Ohio State University and coeditor of Gender, Kinship, Power: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary History.
Reviews
"In this short, clearly written book, Birgitte Soland examines how Danish women who came of age in the 1920s reshaped their female identities and gender relations so that they might lead what they regarded as 'modern' lives... Soland has produced an excellent account of [these] new lifestyles created by young Danish women in the 1920s."--Doris H. Linder, American Historical Review
Book Information
ISBN 9780691049274
Author Birgitte Soland
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 510g