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The perfect fence : untangling the meanings of barbed wire /

In The Perfect Fence, Lyn Ellen Bennett and Scott Abbott explore the multiple uses and meanings of barbed wire, a technological innovation that contributes to America's shift from a pastoral ideal to an industrial one. They survey the vigorous public debate over the benign or "infernal&quo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bennett, Lyn Ellen (Author), Abbott, Scott H. (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: College Station : Texas A&M University Press, [2017].
Edition:First edition.
Series:Connecting the greater west series.
Subjects:
West (U.S.) > Social life and customs > 19th century.
West (U.S.) > History > 1860-1890.
Wire fencing > United States > History > 19th century.
Barbed wire > History > 19th century.
Metaphor in literature.
American fiction > 19th century > Themes, motives.
Table of Contents:
  • Constructing the meaning of barbed wire in late nineteenth-century America
  • "Infernal machines": debating the meaning of barbed wire fences in the media
  • "Secure and safe alike": legislative challenges and inventive responses
  • "The perfect fence": selling barbed wire
  • The barbed wire motif in literature
  • "Don't fence me in": barbed wire in the western
  • "Intimate fences": barbed wire in the New West
  • "The thorny fence": reifying the religious metaphor
  • "I helped him build his own fences": cutting the wire, cutting the lies.