Secret Gardens, Satanic Mills: Placing Girls in European History, 1750-1960

Secret Gardens, Satanic Mills offers a comparative history of European girlhood from 1750 to 1960, with a focus on Britain, France, and Germany. It covers diverse issues in the lives of girls, from sexuality and leisure to social roles in the family and the economy. A corrective to historians' traditionally male orientation toward youth, the volume brings girls to the center of European history, emphasizing their importance in European economics and culture. It also identifies cultural and temporal differences within the European experience, particularly with regard to the spaces girls occupied. While the contributors appreciate the importance of systemic and institutional factors in shaping young girls' lives, they are also sensitive to the ways in which girls have been able to resist dominance and create their own destinies.

The contributors are Kathleen Alaimo, Christina Benninghaus, Pamela Cox, Clare Crowston, Anna Davin, Andreas Gestrich, C line Grasser, Irene Hardach-Pinke, Elizabeth Bright Jones, Clair Langhamer, Mary Jo Maynes, Carol E. Morgan, Tammy M. Proctor, Rebecca Rogers, Karin Schmidlechner, Deborah Simonton, Birgitte S land, and Mary Lynn Stewart.

Author: Mary Jo Maynes
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 12/15/2004
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.20w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9780253217103

About the Author

Mary Jo Maynes is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

Birgitte Søland is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University.

Christina Benninghaus is on the Faculty of History at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.