Women performers played a vital role in the development of American and transatlantic entertainment, celebrity culture, and gender ideology. Sara E. Lampert examines the lives, careers, and fame of overlooked figures from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama, ballet, and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences. These women lived and performed the tensions and contradictions of nineteenth-century gender roles, sparking debates about women's place in public life. Yet even their unprecedented wealth and prominence failed to break the patriarchal family structures that governed their lives and conditioned their careers. Inevitable contradictions arose. The burgeoning celebrity culture of the time forced women stage stars to don the costumes of domestic femininity even as the unsettled nature of life in the theater defied these ideals.

A revealing foray into a lost time, Starring Women returns a generation of performers to their central place in the early history of American theater.

|Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Between Stock and Star: Theater and Touring in the United States, 1790-1830
Chapter 2. Dis/Obedient Daughters and Devoted Wives: The Family Politics of Stock and Star
Chapter 3. The Promise and Limits of Female Stage Celebrity: Fanny Kemble in America, 1832-1835
Chapter 4. Bringing Female Spectacle to the "Western Country," 1835-1840
Chapter 5. Danger, Desire, and the Celebrity "Mania": Fanny Elssler in America, 1840-1842
Chapter 6. The American Actress' Starring Playbook, 1831-1857
Conclusion
Notes
Index|"Starring Women: Celebrity, Patriarchy, and American Theater, 1790-1850 engagingly straddles celebrity theory and theater history research." —Journal of American Culture
"As Sara A. Lampert ably shows, the most prominent female actors often outmatched their male peers in fame, reputation, and—most importantly—income. . . . Starring Women takes a deeply researched look at the lives and careers of the major actresses of the first half of the nineteenth century, most forgotten, even by theater historians. . . . This is a fascinating book." —Journal of American History
"Highly recommended." —Choice
|Sara E. Lampert is an associate professor of history at the University of South Dakota.