“Reasonable Creatures”: Young Male Readers of Advice Literature in Colonial New England, 1673–1767

ABSTRACT Advice literature published between 1673 and 1767 targeted New England’s young male readers, particularly young, white, Protestant men. This study suggests that these readers transformed into a driving force for the publication and popularity of the genre. It engages with a critical analysis of the material books, texts, and paratexts and argues that, although sermons targeting young men and their behavior initially represented an effort on the part of New England ministers to maintain their influence in communities, young men were hardly passive recipients of advice. The research shows that young men came to view their monetary investment in publishing advice as a means of extending their business networks and reinforcing their sense of manhood. Ministers and printers alike experimented with a new language of masculinity, new print formats, and new advertising techniques to reach their young, male consumers. Religious awakenings and warfare divided the reader market, but advice literature maintained its appeal. In the middle decades of the eighteenth century, as a stratified social hierarchy became more defined, a young man needed to identify his place within the hierarchy as a starting point for self-improvement. Advice literature was marketed to young men on that basis, treating them as “reasonable creatures,” and the purchase and reading of these books validated the masculinity of readers. This article shows how studying ephemeral literature such as advice books can bring to light the highly local concerns of a community in transition and, at the same time, reflect global social and economic changes.