The Family in Western Civilization

Winter, 2001

Sarah McNair Vosmeier

VOSM@hanover.edu         (office: 866-7210)



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Course Description

This course examines the changing character of family life in Europe and America, from prehistory to the present. With special attention to the American experience, we will consider gender roles, child rearing practices, family strategies, and the material conditions of everyday life.

Texts

Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, 1992.

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, 1983.

Beatrice Gottlieb, The Family in the Western World: From the Black Death to the Industrial Age, 1993.

Ramón A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846, 1991.

Karen Lystra, Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America, 1989.

Steven Ozment, Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany, 1999.


The above texts are available at the bookstore. You should also expect to make photocopies of materials on reserve at the Duggan Library and to print out online reading assignments.

Calculating Final Grades


Textbook summaries 10%
Literature review 20%
Primary source analysis 15%
Midterm 20%
Final 25%
Participation 10%

Late papers will be penalized, and in-class assignments cannot be made up. Students with emergencies who wish to request an exception to this rule should contact me before the due date.

Summary of Assignments and Exams

Textbook summaries provide your colleagues with a brief overview of how family history fits into the traditional history of a particular period.

The literature review and primary source analysis are best conceived as interrelated, multi-part assignments.

The topic for the literature review is due before the bibliographic instruction session at the library, and a preliminary bibliography allows some time for interlibrary loan requests. The project culminates with an annotated bibliography of the five most useful sources on your topic.

A preliminary bibliography for the primary source analysis allows some time for interlibrary loan requests. A preliminary argument is due before the final paper. The project culminates with a paper of about 1500-2000 words that analyzes a primary source in light of secondary material on that topic. (Ideally, your primary source analysis will concern issues discussed in your literature review.)

The midterm and final exams will include short identifications and longer essay questions.

Participation includes intelligent and collegial participation in class discussions; brief assignments complementing those discussions; and student presentations.





Topics and Reading Assignments

Introduction

Jan. 8, 2001 (Mon.)

Jan. 10, 2001 (Wed.): Coontz, 8-23; 93-121

Prehistory and Ancient History

Jan. 12, 2001 (Fri.): Linda Gordon, "The Treatment of Family Issues in United States History Textbooks," Journal of American History (1994). (Use the JSTOR search page to find this article and download it.)

Jan. 15, 2001 (Mon.): Textbook reviews due.

Jan. 17, 2001 (Wed.): Sarah B. Pomeroy, "Defining the Family" in Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece (1997), 17-66 (on reserve).

Jan. 19, 2001 (Fri.): Research topics due. Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family" in The Family in Ancient Rome (1986), 7-42 (on reserve).



Bibliographic Instruction

Jan. 22, 2001 (Mon.): Textbook reviews due. Meet in Duggan Library.

Preindustrial Households: Marriage, Childbirth, Parenting, Old Age

Jan. 24, 2001 (Wed.): Gottlieb, 1-46

Jan. 26, 2001 (Fri.): Gottlieb, 47-111



Jan. 29, 2001 (Mon.): Preliminary bibliography due. Gottlieb, 111-131; Susan E. Klepp, "Revolutionary Bodies," Journal of American History (1998), 910-45.

Jan. 31, 2001 (Wed.): Gottlieb, 132-76

Feb. 2, 2001 (Fri.): Articles available through the JSTOR search page:

Philippe Aries, "The Reversal of Death: Changes in Attitudes toward Death in Western Societies," American Quarterly (1974), 536-60.
Review of David Charles Sloane, The Last Great Necessity, in The Journal of American History (1992), 230-31.
Review of David Charles Sloane, The Last Great Necessity, in The American Historical Review (1992), 274-75.
Review of Georges Minois, History of Old Age, in The American Historical Review (1991), 1506-7.
Review of Georges Minois, History of Old Age, in Speculum (1991), 453-55.
Review of Carole Haber, Beyond Sixty-five, in The American Historical Review (1984), 193-94.
Review of Carole Haber, Beyond Sixty-five, in The Journal of American History (1984), 374.




Marriage and Parenting in Europe and America, 1500-1700

Feb. 5, 2001 (Mon.): Textbook reviews due. Ozment, ix-53

Feb. 7, 2001 (Wed.) : Ozment, 135-92

Feb. 9, 2001 (Fri.): Ozment, 217-69



Feb. 12, 2001 (Mon.): Gutiérrez, xvii-39

Feb. 14, 2001 (Wed.): John Demos, A Little Commonwealth (1970), 82-117 (on reserve).

Visual Analysis, Review, Material Culture

Feb. 16, 2001 (Fri.) : Literature review due. Visual analysis.



Feb. 19, 2001 (Mon.): Review.

Feb. 21, 2001 (Wed.): Midterm.

Feb. 23, 2001 (Fri.): Textbook reviews due. Cowan, 3-39

Winter Break, Feb. 24-Mar. 4



The Eighteenth Century

Mar. 5, 2001 (Mon.): Coontz, 42-92

Mar. 7, 2001 (Wed.): Primary sources, TBA.

Mar. 9, 2001 (Fri.): Primary sources, TBA.



Mar. 12, 2001 (Mon.): Preliminary bibliography due. Gutiérrez, 207-40

The Nineteenth Century in America

Mar. 14, 2001 (Wed.): Textbook reviews due. Cowan, 40-68

Mar. 16, 2001 (Fri.): Lystra, 3-69, 84-85



Mar. 19, 2001 (Mon.): Lystra, 157-92, 227-59

Early Twentieth-Century America; Student Presentations

Mar. 21, 2001 (Wed.): Textbook reviews due. Cowan, 69-102

Mar. 23, 2001 (Fri.): Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown (1929), 153-81, 251-63 (on reserve); Cowan 151-71.



Mar. 26, 2001 (Mon.): Cowan, 172-91; Mirra Komarovsky, excerpt from The Unemployed Man and His Family (1940) in The American Man, 339-64 (on reserve).

Mar. 28, 2001 (Wed.): Student presentations.

(No class on Friday.)

Apr. 2, 2001 (Mon.): Student presentations. Preliminary argument due by email by midnight.

The United States since World War II

Apr. 4, 2001 (Wed.): Primary source analysis due. Coontz, 23-41, Cowan 192-216

Apr. 6, 2001 (Fri.): Coontz, 149-79;





Visual Analysis, Conclusions, and Review

Apr. 9, 2001 (Mon.): Visual Analysis.

Apr. 11, 2001 (Wed.): Gottlieb, 269-72; Coontz, 255-88; Cowan, 217-20.

Apr. 13, 2001 (Fri.): Review.