Citation

Block MR. History Compass 2009; 7(5): 1391-1399.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00623.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Rape is a serious crime with a long history that has not received much study until very recently. Historians should study the crime of rape in 19th-century America for many reasons, but mostly because it can tell us much about how the law operated in practice and about 19th-century notions of manhood, womanhood, sex, and violence. Historians have produced several studies on rape in the American South, while other regions of the nation have received scant attention for the 19th century. Scholars should consider studies of 19th-century rape at the micro and macro levels and should utilize interdisciplinary approaches in their analyses.