Skip to main content

Social status, the Patriarch and Assembly Balls, and the transformation in elite identity in Gilded Age New York

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.A.
Date created
2013-01-22
Authors/Contributors
Author: Lai, Mei-En
Abstract
As exclusive upper-class balls that represented a fraction of elites during the Gilded Age, the Patriarch and Assembly Balls were sites where the Four Hundred engaged in practices of distinction for the purposes of maintaining their social statuses and of wresting social power from other fractions of elites. By looking at things such as the food, décor, and dancing at these balls, historians could arrive at an understanding of how the Four Hundred wanted to be perceived by others as well as the various types of capital these elites exhibited to assert their claim as the leaders of upper-class New York. In addition, in the process of advancing their claims as the rightful leaders of Society, the New York Four Hundred transformed elite identity as well as upper-class masculinity to include competitiveness and even fitness and vigorousness, traits that once applied more exclusively to white middle-class masculinity.
Document
Identifier
etd7666
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Permissions
The author has not granted permission for the file to be printed nor for the text to be copied and pasted. If you would like a printable copy of this thesis, please contact summit-permissions@sfu.ca.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor: Chenier, Elise
Member of collection
Download file Size
etd7666_MLai.pdf 912.93 KB

Views & downloads - as of June 2023

Views: 76
Downloads: 4