Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on paternity as a category of family history, Contested Paternity emphasizes the importance of fatherhood, the family, and the law within the greater context of changing attitudes toward parental responsibility.
Trade ReviewFascinating in every particular... One of the most important aspects of Contested Paternity is the way in which Fuchs uses the history of paternity suits as a way to analyze changing attitudes towards fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood. -- Jean Elisabeth Pedersen H-France 2009 A compelling study that examines the epochal shift in French fatherhood over the past two centuries. -- Kristen Stromberg Childers American Historical Review 2009 Accessible and of interest to readers from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary junctures. -- Sylvia Schafer Clio 2009 Through her comprehensive study of paternity suits and the impact of banning them from 1804 and 1812, Rachel Fuchs has produced a tour de force on the history of family law in France from the eighteenth century to modern times. -- Maire Fedelma Cross French Studies 2010 [Fuchs] effectively links battles over paternity and parental responsibility to wider political developments... highly recommended. Choice 2009 Fuchs's treatment of the theme of constructions of paternity is stimulating, clear and yet highly refined... With her considerable methodological expertise as a social historian of France, she weaves an exceedingly colourful picture of disputes around paternity. French History 2010 The cases that Fuchs presents are fascinating. -- Caroline Ford Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2010 This book's scope and framework make it a significant addition to the history of families in modern France. -- Deborah Houk Schocket Dalhousie French Studies 2009 Fuch's book provides us with an excellent guide to understanding how these legal notions originated and how they have evolved in modern French history. -- Camille Robcis Social History 2010 In this splendid study, Rachel Fuchs takes an entirely new angle on gender history... On completing the book, all historians will say as I did, 'I wish I'd thought of that.' Fuchs not only thought of it; she did it and did it very well indeed. -- Charles Sowerwine H-France 2009 Has taken a difficult and neglected subject and opened up its many complexities in a way in which no other work I can think of comes close. -- Sian Reynolds H-France 2009 This is a wonderful book, which balances aspects of social, cultural, legal, and gender history. One of its many strengths is Fuchs's ability to combine vivid individual stories with broad analysis. She has carefully sampled judicial archives and the legal press to unearth the concerns and struggles of particular women and men. But she also gives a compelling story of changes in both ideas and laws over the sweep of two centuries. She demonstrates convincingly that the seemingly small question of recherche de paternite can illuminate fundamental social and cultural transformations. -- Gerard N. Magliocca Journal of Law and History Review 2010
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Families and the Social Order from the Old Regime to the Civil Code
2. Seduction and Courtroom Encounters in the Nineteenth Century
3. Find the Fathers, Save the Children, 1870–1912
4. Courts Attribute Paternity, 1912–1940
5. Families Dismantled and Reconstituted, 1880–1940
6. Paternity and the Family, 1940 to the Present
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index
