Description
Book SynopsisHarry Hendrick shows how broader social changes, including neoliberalism, feminism, the collapse of the social-democratic ideal, and the 'new behaviourism', have led to the rise of the anxious and narcissistic parent, In this provocative history of parenting.
Trade Review“Hendrick is an academic historian of medicine who pulls no punches in his analysis of the political and economic backcloth to zeitgeists like `authoritative’ parenting, spawned of neo-liberalism and its narcissistic fixation with the self. This intensively-researched, well-written book is in five parts” Professional Social Work magazine.
"Situating historical and social shifts in parenthood, Harry Hendrick’s latest work is meticulously researched, vigorously argued, glitteringly provocative – and sure to spark robust debate." Alan Prout, University of Leeds
"In progressive parenting, children came first. In market liberalism children became subordinate to parental self-interest. How and why is told here absorbingly, from the 1920s to the present." Avner Offer, University of Oxford, author of The Challenge of Affluence.
"A richly contextualised and beautifully crafted book on the history of parenting in Britain and the United States. Hendrick offers a sensitively nuanced appraisal of the past, asks pertinent questions of the present, leaving us with a strong message for the future." Alison Haggett, University of Exeter
Table of ContentsIntroduction; PART 1: The origins of social democracy’s family ideal: 1920s-1940s; 1. The re-imagining of adult-child relations between the wars; 2. Wartime influences: from the evacuation to the Children Act, 1948; PART 2. Characteristics of the ‘Golden Age’: 1940s-early 1970s; 3. Re-building the family: 1940s-1950s; 4. The ‘long sixties’: 1958-1974; PART 3. Influences and examples from the USA; 5. Social science and American liberalism; PART 4. Parental narcissism in neoliberal times: 1970s to the present; 6. Aspects of neoliberalism: political, economic and social realignment; 7. Laying the foundations for parental narcissism; 8. The New Labour era, and beyond: narcissism comes of age; PART 5. Therapeutic reflections; 9) Narcissism and the 'politics of recognition': concepts of the late-modern self.
