The Making Of The Modern Family
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it truly mean to be a family, and how did the intimate unit we take for granted come to exist? The Making of the Modern Family by Edward Shorter is a landmark work of social history that chronicles the dramatic transformation of family life in Western society from the pre-modern era to the twentieth century. Shorter argues that the rise of romantic love, maternal bonding, and the privatised domestic unit were not timeless human constants but rather radical historical developments, shaped by the sweeping forces of capitalism, urbanisation, and shifting cultural values. Drawing on a vast wealth of historical evidence — from parish records to personal diaries — he reconstructs the lived experience of ordinary men, women, and children across the centuries. Shorter writes with the rigour of a scholar and the narrative drive of a storyteller, making accessible what could otherwise be dense demographic and sociological data. The book challenges sentimental assumptions about the traditional family, presenting instead a picture that is at times startling and deeply human, illuminating how the bonds of love and duty were forged, broken, and remade over generations. Praised by Desmond Morris as so well written, so thought-provoking, this is a work that permanently alters one's understanding of domesticity — and leaves the reader wondering what the family of the future might yet become.
Author: Edward Shorter
Format: Paperback
Genre: Society & culture
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it truly mean to be a family, and how did the intimate unit we take for granted come to exist? The Making of the Modern Family by Edward Shorter is a landmark work of social history that chronicles the dramatic transformation of family life in Western society from the pre-modern era to the twentieth century. Shorter argues that the rise of romantic love, maternal bonding, and the privatised domestic unit were not timeless human constants but rather radical historical developments, shaped by the sweeping forces of capitalism, urbanisation, and shifting cultural values. Drawing on a vast wealth of historical evidence — from parish records to personal diaries — he reconstructs the lived experience of ordinary men, women, and children across the centuries. Shorter writes with the rigour of a scholar and the narrative drive of a storyteller, making accessible what could otherwise be dense demographic and sociological data. The book challenges sentimental assumptions about the traditional family, presenting instead a picture that is at times startling and deeply human, illuminating how the bonds of love and duty were forged, broken, and remade over generations. Praised by Desmond Morris as so well written, so thought-provoking, this is a work that permanently alters one's understanding of domesticity — and leaves the reader wondering what the family of the future might yet become.