... Boggs Bessie insanity mentally ill insane American middle class nineteenth century respectability you could be a respected member of the community if you lived in nineteenth-century America—you could earn your neighbors’ respect if you worked hard, plowed your fields on time, operated...

...One of the more difficult aspects of middle-class respectability has been getting it right when it comes to displays of emotion—too little and a person seems stoical, indifferent, cold; too much and a person is likely to be accused of wearing their feelings on their sleeve, incapable of self...

... provides an important perspective from which to understand the role that respectability played in the nineteenth century. Immigrant congregations supported their members' sense of being respectable, God-fearing Americans while adhering to distinctive beliefs and practices that also put them at risk...

...This chapter explores the question of whether and, if so, to what extent and how negative examples played a prominent role in the stories and lessons through which children were expected to learn what it meant to be a respectable member of society. It argues that the stories, advice books...

...How did Americans come to think of themselves as respectable members of the middle class? Was it just by earning a decent living? Or did it require something more? And if it did, what can we learn that may still apply? The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America...

... of relevance cease to be the long-term trajectory through which protagonists rise from rags to riches and become instead questions about the immediate contexts in which people live. It suggests that what we might call middle-class respectability gets us further than continuing to discuss the American Dream...

...Respect and respectability are topics of continuing interest because privileges and resources flow so often to those deemed respectable, while disrespect goes hand in hand with disadvantage and discrimination. This chapter examines the relationality of respect and respectability at four levels...