Dangerous to Know Women, Crime, and Notoriety in the Early Republic
Susan Branson "A rich, detailed account of an illustrative set of
crimes and of the fine grain of the emergence of the penny press
out of sentimental culture. Branson is to be commended for her
scholarly rigor and sophisticated narrative technique."--"Journal
of American History" "Branson brings us an account of sex and
violence in an era marked by political unrest, social instability,
and economic uncertainty . . . and] urges us to rethink simplistic
ideas about gender dynamics and the relative power (and
powerlessness) of women at the time."--"Journal of the Early
Republic" "A fascinating story that sheds light on gender roles in
post-Revolutionary America. Most studies of women in this period
almost necessarily focus on the elite. "Dangerous to Know" goes a
few steps lower on the social ladder, allowing us to glimpse the
lives of women who, while their values were 'middle class, ' had
suffered significant downward mobility. As Branson so engagingly
shows, these were women who deliberately violated gender
conventions even as they strove to retain a veneer of
respectability."--Sheila Skemp, University of Mississippi In 1823,
the "History of the Celebrated Mrs. Ann Carson" rattled
Philadelphia society and became one of the most scandalous, and
eagerly read, memoirs of the age. This tale of a woman who tried to
rescue her lover from the gallows and attempted to kidnap the
governor of Pennsylvania tantalized its audience with illicit love,
betrayal, and murder. Carson's ghostwriter, Mary Clarke, was no
less daring. Clarke pursued dangerous associations and wrote
scandalous exposes based on her own and others' experiences. She
immersed herself in the world of criminals and disreputable actors,
using her acquaintance with this demimonde to shape a career as a
sensationalist writer. In "Dangerous to Know," Susan Branson
follows the fascinating lives of Ann Carson and Mary Clarke,
offering an engaging study of gender and class in the early
nineteenth century. According to Branson, episodes in both women's
lives illustrate their struggles within a society that constrained
women's activities and ambitions. She argues that both women
simultaneously tried to conform to and manipulate the dominant
sexual, economic, and social ideologies of the time. In their own
lives and through their writing, the pair challenged conventions
prescribed by these ideologies to further their own ends and
redefine what was possible for women in early American public life.
Susan Branson is Associate Professor of American Studies at
Syracuse University and the author of "These Fiery Frenchified
Dames: Women and Political Culture in Early National Philadelphia,"
also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. 2008 200
pages 6 x 9 8 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-4088-7 Cloth $55.00s 36.00
ISBN 978-0-8122-2187-9 Paper $19.95s 13.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-0142-0
Ebook $19.95s 13.00 World Rights American History, Women's/Gender
Studies Short copy: This tale of kidnapping, betrayal, and murder
follows the lives of two women on the margins of early
nineteenth-century society, showing how they manipulated
conventions to further their own ends while redefining what was
possible for women in early American public life.
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