Secret Gardens, Satanic Mills offers a comparative history of European girlhood from 1750 to 1960, with a focus on Britain, France, and Germany. It covers diverse issues in the lives of girls, from sexuality and leisure to social roles in the family and the economy. A corrective to historians' traditionally male orientation toward youth, the volume brings girls to the center of European history, emphasizing their importance in European economics and culture. It also identifies cultural and temporal differences within the European experience, particularly with regard to the spaces girls occupied. While the contributors appreciate the importance of systemic and institutional factors in shaping young girls' lives, they are also sensitive to the ways in which girls have been able to resist dominance and create their own destinies.

The contributors are Kathleen Alaimo, Christina Benninghaus, Pamela Cox, Clare Crowston, Anna Davin, Andreas Gestrich, Celine Grasser, Irene Hardach-Pinke, Elizabeth Bright Jones, Clair Langhamer, Mary Jo Maynes, Carol E. Morgan, Tammy M. Proctor, Rebecca Rogers, Karin Schmidlechner, Deborah Simonton, Birgitte Soland, and Mary Lynn Stewart.

Essays on the history of girlhood in modern Europe

About the Author

Mary Jo Maynes is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

Birgitte Soland is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University.

Christina Benninghaus is on the Faculty of History at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.

Reviews

"... While almost all of the essays would easily fit into larger literatures of family, sexuality, consumer culture, and/or domesticity, their publication together is especially illuminating as a way of seeing shifts in institutional and social perceptions of young unmarried women... This is a fine collection of articles that adds to our understanding of girlhood and even serves to justify a new historical focus on young girls who might otherwise have been overlooked for their historical unimportance as both young and female." -France

"These papers on a wide range of subjects concerning 18th- to 20th-century European young womanhood underscore the distinctive role young girls played in the economic, social, cultural, and political life of their respective countries. The articles prove conclusively that for the overwhelming majority of young European women, work outside the home was a reality. The book's most important feature is the broad overview of the ways in which European societies shaped girls through laws, schools, apprenticeships, sermons, and advice. The articles are divided into four parts. The first examines the experiences of lower-class girls in the working world. The second section discusses middle- and upper-class girls who, though not expected to work outside the home, were relentlessly groomed in order to achieve a proper marriage. The third group of articles illustrates how the increasing importance of scientific study in the late, 19th and early, 20th centuries defined young women by their bodies. The final section shows how work and leisure changed for young women of all classes throughout the late 19th century and into the modern era. An important addition to any discussion of European women. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries." -R. V. A. Gomez, Anne Arundel Community College, Choice, January 2006

Book Information
ISBN 9780253217103
Author Mary Jo Maynes
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 517g