This essay discusses the first two episodes of The Gilded Age. In what is by now a classic essay, historian Elisabeth Israels Perry argued that “Men Are from the Gilded Age, Women Are from the Progressive Era,” lamenting the lack of attention historians gave to women beyond their role in reform movements.[1] Women were relegated… Read more →
Tag: tv show review
Nursing Clio Presents Its Seventh Annual Best of List
Favorite Book Averill: Mystery: Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series – there are two so far, and they are delightful; romance: Helen Huang’s The Heart Principle; historical(ish): Alix E. Harrow, The Once and Future Witches; fantasy: Natasha Pulley, The Kingdoms; and sci-fi: Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary. Most of these I listened to as audiobooks,… Read more →
Narrative Privilege and the Power of Pose
This post contains spoilers for the full series of Pose, including the series finale. Dorian Corey began her career as a dancer in the Pearl Box Revue sometime in the 1960s. By the late 1970s, she was the mother of the House of Corey, strutting the runway in underground drag balls and performing in shows… Read more →
Historian Witches and Scientist Vampires: Can We Be Deborah Harkness When We Grow Up?
Historian-witches, vampire-scientists, and a world where you can get a tenure-track job at an Ivy and fancy fellowships at Oxford just because you work hard and have great hair? You guessed it: we’re talking A Discovery of Witches. Please excuse our numerous exclamation points! A Discovery of Witches is the first book in Deb Harkness’s… Read more →
How to Do It: Sex Education and the “Sex Life”
In 1696, in Somerset county in southwest England, a schoolboy named John Cannon and his friends took their lunchtime break on the banks of a river near their schoolhouse. Unlike other uneventful riverside lunches, though, this day was memorable enough for Cannon to record in his memoirs. An older boy who was “about 17” years… Read more →
Marie Kondo and Books: Tidying Up the Misconceptions
The Netflix reality TV show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo premiered on January 1, 2019. Based on her bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (2014), the show follows Kondo as she brings her process into the homes of a diverse cast of clients. Her process, called… Read more →
Big Hair, Boots, and Business: Bidding Happy Trails to Nashville
It’s no big secret that I’m Nursing Clio’s resident country music fan, as evidenced by my previous post on women in modern country music as well as my penchant for cowboy boots. Like many fans, this summer I’m mourning the conclusion of country music soap opera delight, Nashville, in late July. For six seasons, Nashville… Read more →
Neurasthenia, Capitalism, and Biopower in HBO’s Westworld
The HBO series Westworld has amassed a large fan base that has grown since the start of the second season. For those who haven’t tuned in, the show is set in the near future and follows the activity of a park full of robots who look and act like humans. Humans pay premium prices to… Read more →
Gilded Age Decadence and Decay: A Review of The Alienist
I’ve been pretty excited about the coming of TNT’s adaptation of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist since the announcement last summer. I read the book – and hated it – last year with my book club. That discussion was a fun one, because we love to hate a book. Our biggest qualm was that the author… Read more →
Fighting Back Over Leaning In: HBO’s Big Little Lies as a Lesson in Feminist Solidarity
As powerful men continue to fall in the wake of the viral #metoo movement, and as it has evolved into #TheirTimeIsUp, women are asking how to move forward in order to create a different world. I keep coming back to the critical possibilities of HBO’s Emmy and Golden Globe winning miniseries Big Little Lies. Single,… Read more →