NCSA 2007 Article Prize winner

Stefan Bargheer

"Fools of the Leisure Class: Honor, Ridicule and the Emergence of Animal Protection Legislation in England, 1740-1840"

The annual Nineteenth Century Studies Association Article Prize recognizes excellence in scholarly studies from any discipline focusing on any aspect of the long 19th century (French Revolution to World War I). The 2007 article prize committee members were Patricia O'Hara, Professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College; Jeremy King, Associate Professor of History at Mt. Holyoke College; and Joan DelPlato, Professor of Art History at Simon's Rock College of Bard.

This year the committee reviewed 53 articles published in some of the most prestigious academic journals and presses. Represented were the disciplines of history, art history, photographic history, music history, literature, sociology, philosophy and architecture history; American studies; African American Studies; and Gender Studies/Women's Studies / Queer Studies. Authors submitted entries from Canada, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and France as well as the U.S. and the U.K.

The winner of the 2007 NCSA Article Prize is Stefan Barheer, Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Chicago. His article "Fools of the Leisure Class: Honor, Ridicule and the Emergence of Animal Protection Legislation in England, 1740-1840" appeared in the journal Archives Européennes de Sociologie.

Mr. Bargheer's article has reach over time, over schools of thought, over the well-developed literature on his topic, and over questions of class conflict and class interest. Self-avowedly revisionist, it contends with, among other things, the tendency over several decades of social history, to heroicize the lower classes and to damn the upper ones. Bargheer evaluates the methodological approaches of 19th and 20th century interdisciplinary thinkers and draws richly upon his primary source material, especially the Parliamentary Debates, as he links the emergence of animal rights legislation both to social practices in London such as greater animal visibility, meat-eating and pet-keeping as well as to ideological formations, notably the new cult of male honor among the higher classes. The article is highly nuanced and at the same time utterly clear.

"Fools of the Leisure Class" is part of Bargheer's dissertation research on the genesis and transformation of the moral concern for animals in England, France, and Germany. He is currently researching in Germany.