Acts of Manhood

Exploring the performance of masculinity on and off the nineteenth-century American stage, this book looks at the shift from the passionate muscularity of Edwin Forrest to the intellectual restraint of Edwin Booth was not a linear journey toward national refinement; but rather, a multitude of masculinities simultaneously fought for dominance and recognition. Actors and audiences mutually constructed manly ideals unique to each splintered group, while simultaneously seeking national identity and communal belonging. Kippola integrates dramas, manly rhetoric, advice literature, and masculine performances on political and theatrical stages to trace fragmenting and competing masculine identities in antebellum America.