Invisible men

by Claudia Nelson

Invisible Men focuses on the tremendous growth of periodical literature from 1850 to 1910 to illustrate how Victorian and Edwardian thought and culture problematized fatherhood within the family. Claudia Nelson shows how positive images of fatherhood virtually disappeared from the literature of the day as motherhood claimed an exalted position with imagined ties to patriotism, social reform, and religious influence. Nelson's research draws on the rapidly expanding genre periodicals of the time - political, scientific, domestic, and religious. The study begins in 1850, a point marking the end of the pre-Victorian role of the father in the middle-class home - as one who led the family in prayer, administered discipline, and determined the children's education, marriage, and career. In subsequent decades, fatherhood was increasingly scrutinized while a new definition of motherhood and femininity emerged. The solution to the newly perceived dilemma of fatherhood appeared rooted in traditio