Wayward lives, beautiful experiments : intimate histories of social upheaval
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019].
Appears on these lists
Status
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|
Central - Adult Nonfiction | 305.48896 HARTM | Checked Out | September 30, 2025 |
Courthouse - Adult Nonfiction | 305.48896 HARTM | On Hold Shelf |
Description
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More Details
Published
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xxi, 441 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
Street Date
1902
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-418) and index.
Description
"A breathtaking exploration of the lives of young black women in the early twentieth century. In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Free love, common-law and transient marriages, serial partners, cohabitation outside of wedlock, queer relations, and single motherhood were among the sweeping changes that altered the character of everyday life and challenged traditional Victorian beliefs about courtship, love, and marriage. Hartman narrates the story of this radical social transformation against the grain of the prevailing century-old argument about the crisis of the black family. In wrestling with the question of what a free life is, many young black women created forms of intimacy and kinship that were indifferent to the dictates of respectability and outside the bounds of law. They cleaved to and cast off lovers, exchanged sex to subsist, and revised the meaning of marriage. Longing and desire fueled their experiments in how to live. They refused to labor like slaves or to accept degrading conditions of work. Beautifully written and deeply researched, Wayward Lives recreates the experience of young urban black women who desired an existence qualitatively different than the one that had been scripted for them--domestic service, second-class citizenship, and respectable poverty--and whose intimate revolution was apprehended as crime and pathology. For the first time, young black women are credited with shaping a cultural movement that transformed the urban landscape. Through a melding of history and literary imagination, Wayward Lives recovers their radical aspirations and insurgent desires." -- Publisher's description
Subjects
LC Subjects
African American young women -- Sexual behavior -- History.
African American young women -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
African American young women -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
Man-woman relationships
Prostitution -- United States -- History.
Sex customs -- United States -- History.
Single women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
Single women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
Urban women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
Urban women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
African American young women -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
African American young women -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
Man-woman relationships
Prostitution -- United States -- History.
Sex customs -- United States -- History.
Single women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
Single women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
Urban women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
Urban women -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Hartman, S. V. (2019). Wayward lives, beautiful experiments: intimate histories of social upheaval (First edition.). W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Hartman, Saidiya V. 2019. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval. W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Hartman, Saidiya V. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Hartman, Saidiya V. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval First edition., W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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