"The rise of both the empire of cotton and the empire of fashion in the nineteenth century brought new opportunities for sartorial self-expression to millions of ordinary people who could now afford to dress in style and assert their physical presence. Millions of laborers toiling in cotton fie...

Full description

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Cook, Sylvia Jenkins 1943- (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press [2020]
Series:	Class : culture
Subjects:	American literature / 19th century / History and cricitism Working class authors / United States / History / 19th century Textile workers / United States / Social conditions / 19th century Cotton trade / United States / History / 19th century Clothing trade / United States / History / 19th century Working class women in literature Freed persons / United States / Social conditions / 19th century Cotton trade Clothing trade Freedmen / Social conditions Textile workers / Social conditions Working class authors United States
Summary:	"The rise of both the empire of cotton and the empire of fashion in the nineteenth century brought new opportunities for sartorial self-expression to millions of ordinary people who could now afford to dress in style and assert their physical presence. Millions of laborers toiling in cotton field and producing cotton cloth in industrial mills faced a brutal reality of exploitation, servitude, and regimentation, yet they also had a profound desire to express their selfhood. Another transformative force of this era, the rise of literary publication and the radical extension of literacy to the working class, opened an avenue for them to do so. Cloth and clothing provide potent tropes not only for the physical but also for intellectual forms of self-expression. The rise of both the empire of cotton and the empire of fashion in the nineteenth century brought new opportunities for sartorial self-expression to millions of ordinary people who could now afford to dress in style and assert their physical presence. Millions of laborers toiling in cotton field and producing cotton cloth in industrial mills faced a brutal reality of exploitation, servitude, and regimentation, yet they also had a profound desire to express their selfhood. Another transformative force of this era, the rise of literary publication and the radical extension of literacy to the working class, opened an avenue for them to do so. Cloth and clothing provide potent tropes not only for the physical but also for intellectual forms of self-expression"--
Physical Description:	309 pages 24 cm