Nine Centuries of Man: Manhood and Masculinity in Scottish History
Lynn Abrams and Elizabeth L. Ewan
Abstract
What did it mean to be a man in Scotland over the past nine centuries? Scotland, with its stereotypes of the kilted warrior and the industrial ‘hard man’, has long been characterised in masculine terms, but there has been little historical exploration of masculinity in a wider context. This interdisciplinary collection examines a diverse range of the multiple and changing forms of masculinities from the late eleventh to the late twentieth century, exploring the ways in which Scottish society through the ages defined expectations for men and their behaviour. How men reacted to those expectation ... More
What did it mean to be a man in Scotland over the past nine centuries? Scotland, with its stereotypes of the kilted warrior and the industrial ‘hard man’, has long been characterised in masculine terms, but there has been little historical exploration of masculinity in a wider context. This interdisciplinary collection examines a diverse range of the multiple and changing forms of masculinities from the late eleventh to the late twentieth century, exploring the ways in which Scottish society through the ages defined expectations for men and their behaviour. How men reacted to those expectations is examined through sources such as documentary materials, medieval seals, romances, poetry, begging letters, police reports and court records, charity records, oral histories and personal correspondence. Focusing upon the wide range of activities and roles undertaken by men – work, fatherhood and play, violence and war, sex and commerce – the book also illustrates the range of masculinities that affected or were internalised by men. Together, the chapters illustrate some of the ways Scotland’s gender expectations have changed over the centuries and how, more generally, masculinities have informed the path of Scottish history
Keywords:
Scotland,
masculinity,
gender,
Scottish society,
history,
gender expectations
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781474403894 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: September 2017 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474403894.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Lynn Abrams, editor
University of Glasgow
Elizabeth L. Ewan, editor
University of Guelph, Ontario
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