Anglo-Americans wrestled with some profound cultural contradictions as they shifted from the hierarchical and patriarchal society of the seventeenth-century frontier to the modern and fluid class democracy of the mid-nineteenth century. How could traditional inequality be maintained in the socially leveling environment of the early colonial wilderness? And how could nineteenth-century Americans pretend to be equal in an increasingly unequal society? Bowing to Necessities argues that manners provided ritual solutions to these central cultural problems by allowing Americans to act out--and thus reinforce--power relations just as these relations underwent challenges. Analyzing the many sermons, child-rearing guides, advice books, and etiquette manuals that taught Americans how to behave, this book connects these instructions to individual practices and personal concerns found in contemporary diaries and letters. It also illuminates crucial connections between evolving class, age, and gender relations. A social and cultural history with a unique and fascinating perspective, Hemphill's wide-ranging study offers readers a panorama of America's social customs from colonial times to the Civil War.

How men and women interact, the respect young show old, and old show young, and who doffs their hat to whom provides a telling window on American cultural history. This study works through two centuries of conduct literature.

I Bow To Everything is an unfolding account of deep, rich lessons of the soul. Through receiving news that turned her comfortable world upside down, Marcia Buch, teacher and artist, shares her inspirational story of coping, with the potential to uplift all of us in our daily journey. She writes, "When I can turn lessons inward, and see that I can repair sadness within myself, this then ripples out to others. The world becomes better because I have taken the time to look inward, take action, and live with the intention to be truthful in my life even in those places of sadness and doubt. Living and loving strong are beautiful ways to surf the crest of the waves of life." I Bow To Everything chronicles a personal journey of acknowledging grief, embracing joy and improving quality of life. "If God said, Rumi, pay homage to everything that has helped you enter my arms, there would not be one experience of my life, not one thought, there would not be one experience of my life, not one thought," not any act, I would not bow to." Rumi

Presents a 'sensory history' of early North America, this text offers an understanding of the role that sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch played in shaping the lives of Europeans, Indians, and Africans in the New World. It explores the impact of sensuous experiences on human thought and action.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1860.