Raising Fathers, Raising Boys: Informal Education and Enculturation in Britain, 1880-1914 Stephanie Olsen Department of History McGill University, Montreal September 2008 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Stephanie Inge Desiree Olsen, 2008 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53286-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53286-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Abstract Raising Fathers, Raising Boys: Informal Education and Enculturation in Britain, 1880- 1914 is primarily focused on popular preoccupations surrounding masculinity (manliness), boyhood, adolescence, and fatherhood, in the context of widespread concerns about national efficiency, public vice, and private morals at the fin de siecle. This thesis reveals the growing consensus amongst the publishers of juvenile literature that children (especially boys) of all areas and social backgrounds were being failed by the various institutions of formal education (be they the elite public schools or the new schools springing up since the Education Act of 1870), and that certain moral imperatives were being inadequately met by the nation's parents. Stressing the continuity of religious influence in the everyday experience of children throughout the late-Victorian and Edwardian period (and thereby challenging the secularization thesis put forward by some scholars), this study charts the agreement established between disparate groups on the importance of disseminating Christian values for the task of raising the nation's boys into manly, domesticated men and good fathers. This emphasis on family life is crucial, since it broadens the current historiographical focus on the imperial connotations of elite education and the supposed middle-class "flight from domesticity." By showing that masculinity was not only about patriarchal or imperial outlooks, the work explicates the meaning of fatherhood in the period, stressing the continuing importance and validation of men as fathers and of the boy "as father to the man." The major sources for the thesis arise out of a variety of religious organizations that focused on the temperate and manly upbringing of boys, from the Religious Tract Society, to the Church of England Temperance Society, and the Band of Hope. The thesis also establishes ideological i similarities between these groups and for-profit publishers such as the Amalgamated Press. These groups strategized to ensure the informal character training of boys was carried out. The principal method of informal education for these groups was, however, the cheap periodical paper, and it is in the pages of these that the thesis makes its most wide-reaching explorations. 11 Resume Raising Fathers, Raising Boys: Informal Education and Enculturation in Britain, 1880- 1914 est une etude des preoccupations populaires vis-a-vis la masculinite [manliness], de l'enfance et 1'adolescence masculines et de la paternite, situes dansun contexte contemporain caracterise par une inquietude regnante face a l'efficacite nationale, le vice public et la moralite privee. Cette these demontre l'existence d'un consensus de plus en plus marque parmi les editeurs de la litterature populaire pour les enfants, (particulierement pour gar9ons) sur le fait que l'education formelle que recevaient leurs jeunes lecteurs (que ce soit dans des ecoles elite, ou, apres la loi de 1870, dans les nouvelles institutions d'education de masse) leur faisait defaut, et, de plus, que les parents de la nation etaient inaptes a leur transmettre certains imperatifs moraux, et ce, peu importe leurs origines geographiques ou sociales. En insistant sur la continuite de 1'influence religieuse dans la vie quotidienne des enfants de l'epoque (contestant done la these de secularisation defendue par plusieurs historiens), cette these met en evidence la mise en accord de groupes heteroclites sur l'importance d'une dissemination des valeurs chretiennes au sein d'une education visant a creer des hommes a la fois domestiques et veritablement males, et de bons peres. L'accent mis ici sur la vie familiale est crucial, car il permet d'elargir les courants historiographiques focalisant sur les implications imperialistes de l'education des elites et la tendance des classes moyennes a « fuire la sphere domestique » qu'on a appele « flight from domesticity ». En montrant que les valeurs de masculinite ne s'appliquaient pas seulement au patriarcat ou a l'empire, ce travail permet de mieux comprendre ce que signifiait la paternite a l'epoque, insistant sur l'importance et la mise en valeur soutenues des hommes en tant que peres, et sur le iii concept du garcon « comme pere de l'homme ». Les principales sources archivistiques utilisees proviennent de groupes religieux, tels que la Religious Tract Society, la Church of England Temperance Society et la Band of Hope, dont un des buts etait d'eduquer les garcons selon les valeurs de la masculinite et de la sobriete. Une telle ideologic etait aussi partageepar certaines maisons d'edition a but lucratif, dont VAmalgamated Press. Ces groupes avaient comme objectif commun la formation du caractere des garcons, dont la strategic principale etait une education informelle par le biais de publications periodiques populaires, dont les pages sont le terrain principal d'une exploration analytique de grande envergure presentee dans cette these. IV Acknowledgements During the course of this dissertation, I have accrued many debts. My supervisors, Elizabeth Elbourne and Brian Lewis and Michele Cohen (Richmond, the American International University), have given me superb direction, both in the writing of this thesis and as mentors. Many thanks to Joy Dixon (University of British Columbia), whose guidance and advice were invaluable throughout my M.A. work and since and Ian Gentles (Glendon College, York University) who provided me with my first wonderful experiences in British history courses. I am grateful to my defence committee, Carman Miller, Kevin McDonough, Jarrett Rudy, and the external examiner, Stephen Heathorn, for providing me with excellent comments with which to continue this project. I was fortunate to receive a Canadian Graduate Scholarship, bourse de la foundation Ricard and support from McGill University during my doctoral program. I also received travel grants from McGill (SSHRC) and the Department of History, ' allowing me to present my work at conferences in Cambridge and Auckland. I am thankful to the Friends of the Princeton University Library Research Grant Program, which made it possible for me to conduct research at Princeton's Cotsen Children's Library. Lastly, I am grateful to the SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship program for giving me the opportunity further to pursue my research. Many thanks to the helpful staff at the British Library, SOAS, York Minster Library, Lambeth Palace Library, the Bodleian Library, the West Yorkshire Archive Service at Bradford and Leeds, the National Archives of Canada, the Osborne Collection, Fischer Rare Books at the University of Toronto and of course the McGill libraries, and especially Judith Crowe at the Institute of Alcohol Studies (London) who could not have v been more helpful. At McGill I must also thank Colleen Parish, Celine Coutinho, Karen Connors, Sylvia Crawford and Jody Anderson for their help and support over the years. Thank you to Michele Cohen, Harriet Atkinson and Valerian Freyberg and Michele Haapamaki for providing me with much needed accommodation and companionship in London. Thank you also to my friends who shared sympathetically the long, sometimes frustrating, road of the Ph.D. student with me: Harriet Atkinson, Justin Bengry, Dan Rueck, Cheryl Smeall, David Maren,