| Reading Guide for Week 8 | |
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Tuesday Last week we examined the instability and destabilization of economic life in nineteenth-century America. And we focused on two of many factors: the uncertainties of money, and the intertwined uncertainities of banking. This week we will start with some efforts to stabilize that instability: the reinvention of clerks. Michael Zakim wrote his first book about the history of men’s clothing, and his second book about the history of clerks, both in nineteenth-century America. Clerks were men, who wore men’s clothing. But the hiring of clerks multiplied in American business life over the nineteenth century, to help handle and rationalize the augmenting complexity of the increasing commercialization of economic life. To be a clerk became its own distinct occupation, one that could be translated into any kind of business, in order to create order out of disorder. One such business was the new industry of men’s clothing. To own and/or manage a men’s clothing business likewise became a distinct occupation, beyond the traditional occupation of tailoring. Tailoring was a particular skill, whereas managing a men’s clothing business was a business skill. Wendy Gamber wrote a history of women’s clothing, which similar to men’s clothing changed dramatically over the course of nineteenth-century America. The production of women’s clothing became mechanized, and the business of women’s clothing became increasingly dominated by men. Rather than themselves making ill-fitting clothing, men and women could more commonly purchase ill-fitting clothing from retailers, who, in large cities like New York, could also serve as wholesalers with wide distribution networks. |