{"product_id":"a-world-of-their-own-making-myth-ritual-the-quest-for-family-values-9780674961883","title":"A World of Their Own Making  Myth Ritual  the","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur 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. \u003ci\u003eA World of Their Own Making\u003c\/i\u003e examines our idealized notion of “The Family,” a mind-set in which myth and symbol still hold sway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSynthesizes, 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 *\u003cbr\u003eWeddings, 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 \u003ci\u003eManhood in America: A Cultural History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003etour de force\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eFables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrologue   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","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49917769777495,"sku":"9780674961883","price":26.31,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780674961883.jpg?v=1738449125","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-world-of-their-own-making-myth-ritual-the-quest-for-family-values-9780674961883","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}