Karen Halttunen. Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830-1870. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. Pp.262; 14 illus.
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Introduction
Karen Halttunen's Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-class Culture in America, 1830-1870, suggests a different set of questions to ask in our quest to understand middle-class culture. Her questions move us beyond the observation of American sentimental culture as hypocritical so that we may gain an understanding of why nineteenth century Americans found hypocrisy in society so problematic, how, according to advice manuals of the time, they proposed to solve the problem of hypocrisy, and what effect the failure of their solution had on society.
The work provides an interesting perspective on a driving force of nineteenth century culture; it explains the conditions which make the confidence man—a figure that had existed a century earlier without much notice by society—a figure of such preoccupation and fear. The conditions, reactions, and outcomes are placed into a context which show the impact of a grand historical meta-narrative on everyday aspects of life such as fashion, etiquette, and social ritual.
Overview | Social Conditions | Reactions | Outcomes | Commentary