Description
Book SynopsisOur whole society may be obsessed with “family values,” but as John Gillis points out in this entertaining and eye-opening book, most of our images of “home sweet home” are of very recent vintage.
A World of Their Own Making examines our idealized notion of “The Family,” a mind-set in which myth and symbol still hold sway.
Trade ReviewSynthesizes, in thoroughly readable prose, a tremendous amount of recent historical literature on Western family life from the Middle Ages to the present. This is no mean feat, and the fact that it undermines many loudly proclaimed political pieties is a delicious bonus. -- Warren Goldstein * Philadelphia Inquirer *
Weddings, birthdays, funerals, reunions, Mother's Day, even Christmas--we think of these ritual events as timeless traditions, our links to the distant past and the future. As such, they become invested with a syrupy sentimentalism, both sweet and sticky--part of the current nostalgia for family values. John Gillis's twin gifts as a historian and a writer are to reveal just how modern and how politically constructed these rituals are and to tell their story with the narrative grace and flair of a born storyteller. A book both learned and entertaining. -- Michael Kimmel, author of
Manhood in America: A Cultural HistoryA
tour de force of accessible scholarship, written with vigor and grace, filled with fascinating details and fresh insights...No one who cares about the past, present, or future of family life can afford to ignore this book. -- Jackson Lears, author of
Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in AmericaTable of ContentsPrologue Acknowledgments Introduction Different Times, Different Places: Meanings of Family and Home Before the Modern Age Myths of Family Past At Home with Families of Strangers Life and Death in a Small Parenthesis Enchanting Families: The Victorian Origins of Modern Family Cultures A World of Their Own Making Making Time(s) for Family No Place Like Home Mythic Figures in the Suburban Landscape The Perfect Couple Mothers Giving Birth to Motherhood Bringing Up Fathers: Strangers in Our Midst Haunting the Dead New Times and New Places: Myths and Rituals for a Global Era Conclusion: Remaking Our Worlds Notes Index
