Public Men and Virtuous Women: The Gendered Languages of Religion and Politics in Upper Canada, 1791-1850

Chris Raible is a social historian and the author of Muddy York Mud:
Scandal and Scurrility in Upper Canada.

The primary goal of this book is, in the words of the author, “to
bring together the insights of both feminist history and
poststructuralist thought in order to delineate the ways in which gender
informed particular discourses and, in turn, how society shaped and
re-shaped gendered categories and images.”

While many recent histories written from a feminist perspective have
relied heavily on personal documents (women’s journals, diaries,
letters, etc.), this book draws upon printed matter (mainly newspapers,
but also pamphlets and other literature) as the basis for its analysis
of one era’s gender-based attitudes, images, values, and expectations.
Throughout, the emphasis is on language as Morgan searches for both
hidden and explicit gender references and biases in religious and
political writings.

Five carefully researched chapters trace the history of Upper Canada
(and a bit beyond). Chapter 1 examines the Loyalist era and its
idealized images of women and patriotism. Chapter 2 deals with the
Tory-Reform debates of the 1820s, in which each side accused the other
of being unmanly and effeminate. Chapter 3 looks at religious writings
and the family, while Chapter 4 considers with “manners and mores”
in the 1830s—such issues as temperance, education, dueling, and codes
of conduct. Chapter 5 focuses on the feminine home and the masculine
marketplace in the 1840s.

This is a fascinating and important work. Unfortunately, its academic
language may restrict its appeal to specialists in the field.