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Article: How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- September 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How Young Ladies Became Girls: The Victorian Origins of American Girlhood. By Jane H. Hunter (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 478 pp.).
The story of how "young ladies" became "girls" is, as Jane Hunter tells it in her book of the same title, an important piece of the twin historical forces of modernism and feminism. In this absorbing and nuanced book Hunter situates transformations in girlhood within the larger framework of the mounting rejection of Victorianism at the end of the 19th century. It is a vast and complex undertaking, addressing an impressive range of topics: housework, girls' literature and diary keeping, health and exercise, schooling, ...