Description
Book SynopsisVolume IV of this award-winning series chronicles this development from the tumult of the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War Ia century and a quarter of rapid, ungovernable change culminating in a conflict that, at a stroke, altered life in the Western world.
Trade ReviewThe fourth volume of this brilliant series arrives with the poignancy of a letter that through some fluke of the postal system has been delayed 70 or 100 years and is read by descendants of the original addressee… A whole century’s cries and murmurs are here, reminding us that their echoes are with us still. -- Joseph Coates * Chicago Tribune *
Evocatively written, well translated, and beautifully illustrated. -- Richard Sennett * New York Newsday *
General readers as well as academic specialists will revel in the wealth of historical detail and insight offered here. Ariès saw three basic forces contributing to the profound social changes of the early modern era: the rise of state power, the spread of literacy, and new forms of religious piety. Together, the essays address each of these realms from several angles, providing glimpses at everything from cookbooks to
charivaris, love letters to
lettres decachet. The pattern that emerges is the creation of a sphere of private life, thought, and feeling that was unknown in the Middle Ages. * Choice *
There’s something wonderfully audacious about the very concept of ‘History of Private Life,’ a five-volume study that seeks to reveal the most intimate details of everyday life over three millennia of Western European history. Here is one scholarly work in which the bathroom and the bordello figure as importantly as the storming of the Bastille or the defeat of Napoleon… A fascinating glimpse into the distant and exotic past. -- Jonathan Kirsch * Los Angeles Times *
The new emphasis on the history of everybody has now been consecrated in [this] ambitious five-volume series…masterfully translated by Arthur Goldhammer… Copious illustrative materials—paintings, drawings, caricatures, and photographs, all cannily chosen and wittily captioned to display domestic life… Magnificent. -- Roger Shattuck * New York Times Book Review *
Together these five compact volumes cover much of the history of the classical world, and do so with both ease and authority. * Washington Post Book World *
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Michelle Perrot 1. The Curtain Rises by Lynn Hunt, Catherine Hall Introduction by Michelle Perrot The Unstable Boundaries of the French Revolution The Sweet Delights of Home 2. The Actors by Michelle Perrot, Anne Martin-Fugier Introduction by Michelle Perrot The Family Triumphant Roles and Characters Bourgeois Rituals 3. Scenes and Places by Michelle Perrot, Roger-Henri Guerrand At Home Private Spaces 4. Backstage by Alain Corbin Introduction by Michelle Perrot The Secret of the Individual Intimate Relations Cries and Whispers Conclusion by Michelle Perrot Notes Bibliography Credits Index
