Historians on Housewives

294 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 5 halftones

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-8628-8
Published: March 2025
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8627-1
Published: March 2025

Paperback Available March 2025, but pre-order your copy today!

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According to popular stereotype, Bravo reality television portrays vapid, one-dimensional characters tearing each other down for viewers’ enjoyment. Whether The Real Housewives taps into our voyeuristic urges, our fascination with wealth and class, or the allure of the sheer spectacle of grown women yelling at one another, the show is truly a cultural phenomenon—and a global one, with more than twenty international spin-offs. Historians on Housewives looks past the show’s reputation as lowbrow, unscripted reality television and unveils deeper historical meanings behind some of Bravo's best-known programs and franchises.

This collection of ten essays is both a celebration of the bizarre behavior of the Real Housewives and a critical theorizing of the importance of the shows and the Housewives themselves. Historians on Housewives explores relationships between historical topics and themes and some of Bravo's most iconic moments to demonstrate the usefulness of Bravo television as a tool for making history accessible. With contributions from scholars representing an impressive historical breadth, from the Roman Empire to the civil rights movement and beyond, the volume carves out a space for serious treatment of the franchise, fusing scholarship with pop culture to suggest interdisciplinary approaches for "doing history" that appeal to popular and academic audiences alike.

Contributors are Nicole L. Anslover, Martina Baldwin, Emilie M.Brinkman, Marcia Chatelain, Jennifer C. Edwards, Jennifer M. Fogel, Tanisha C. Ford, Noah D. Guynn, Rosemarie Jones, Haley Schroer, Kristalyn M. Shefvelend, and Serenity Sutherland.

About the Authors

Kacey Calahane is assistant professor of history at Chaffey College.

For more information about Kacey Calahane, visit the Author Page.

Jessica Millward is associate professor of history and African American studies at the University of California Irvine.

For more information about Jessica Millward, visit the Author Page.

Max Speare is associate professor of history at Saddleback College.

For more information about Max Speare, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"The Historians on Housewives leave no stone unturned in this book, which I commonly refer to as 'The Bravo Bible.' A must-read for any Bravo fan!"—David Yontef, host of the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast

"Dramatic and effective, this collection creatively bridges American popular culture and intellectual production and interrogates the powerful relationship between past and present. I cannot think of a single other book like this one."—Leslie M. Alexander, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor of History at Rutgers University

"Historians on Housewives critically interrogates the 'realities' of reality television so we can better understand the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Bravo."—Jason Herbert, creator and host of the Historians at the Movies website and podcast

"Dramatic and effective, this collection creatively bridges American popular culture and intellectual production and interrogates the powerful relationship between past and present. I cannot think of a single other book like this one."—Leslie Alexander, author of Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States

"A fascinating and smart read. A perfect book for any Real Housewives fan—academic or not."—Emily D. Ryalls, author of The Culture of Mean: Representing Victims and Bullies in Popular Culture