Whiskerology: The History and Culture of American Hair
Hair is always and everywhere freighted with meaning. However, in nineteenth-century America hair took on decisive new significance as an integral part of the body — capable of exposing truths about the bodies from which it grew. As the U.S. diversified and its divisions intensified, Americans tried to classify one another by their hair: its length, texture, even the shape of a single strand. Yet if hair was a teller of truths, it could also facilitate deceptions that alarmed some and empowered others. Hair indexed belonging in some ways that may seem strange — but in other ways all too familiar — today.
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Speaker:
Sarah Gold McBride is a historian and lecturer in the program in American Studies. Dr. Gold McBride's research and teaching focus on the social and cultural history of the nineteenth-century United States; her recent courses have explored American friendship, everyday objects, scams and frauds, beaches, and the history of UC Berkeley. Dr. Gold McBride is also a three-time alum of UC Berkeley, having received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from this university. Her book, Whiskerology: The Culture of Hair in Nineteenth-Century America, was published earlier this year by Harvard University Press.