A History of Virility

In these original essays, an international group of scholars, including Claude Thomasset, Jean-Paul Bertaud, and Andre Rauch, follow the socio-historical evolution of virility, as opposed to masculinity, to unsettle popular accounts of politics and culture. The book begins with ancient conceptions of the male gender, which persisted, with significant alterations, for centuries. Virility foundered during the Enlightenment, and then declined in the nineteenth century. Born out of defensiveness, twentieth-century conceptions of maleness embody a "virility on edge," which, when considered in relation to events, adds fascinating depth to our understanding of history.

A major contribution to the nascent field of masculinity studies, this history consults painting, sculpture, literature, philosophy, film, and cultural and sociological critique. It involves fascism, nationalism, liberalism, classicism, colonialism, and war. With the twentieth century delivering one blow after another to hegemonic virility, this book also explores where manliness might be headed next.

Alain Corbin is a French historian and specialist of nineteenth-century France. His publications includeWomen for Hire: Prostitution and Sexuality in France After 1850; The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination; Village Bells; and The Life of an Unknown.

Jean-Jacques Courtine is professor of anthropology at the Sorbonne nouvelle (Paris III) and professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. With Georges Vigarello, he editedHistoire du corps (History of the Body) and Histoire du visage (History of the Face).

Georges Vigarello is one of Europe's best-known historians of the body. He has published prolifically on topics ranging fromConcepts of Cleanliness and the cultural history of sports to The History of Rapeand The History of the Body. Vigarello is research director at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS), and he is the author, most recently, ofThe Metamorphoses of Fat: A History of Obesity.