This book explores the ways in which mid-19th Century American army officers' wives used material culture to confirm their status as middle-class women.
List of Illustrations and Tables -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One -- The Life of the Mind -- Chapter Two -- A Necessary Nuisance: Sartorial Concerns -- Chapter Three -- Dainties in the Larder -- Chapter Four -- I Never Objected to Entertaining Men -- Chapter Five -- Household Gods: the Essentials of Home Life -- Chapter Six -- Taps -- Appendix One -- Appendix Two -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
