Unquiet Lives
Based on vivid court records and newspaper advertisements, this 2003 book is a pioneering account of the expectations and experiences of married life among the middle and labouring ranks in the long eighteenth century. Its original methodology draws attention to the material life of marriage, which has long been dominated by theories of emotional shifts or fashionable accounts of spouses' gendered, oppositional lives. Thus it challenges preconceptions about authority in the household, by showing the extent to which husbands depended upon their wives' vital economic activities: household management and child care. Not only did this forge co-dependency between spouses, it undermined men's autonomy. The power balance within marriage is further revised by evidence that the sexual double standard was not rigidly applied in everyday life. The book also shows that ideas about adultery and domestic violence evolved in the eighteenth century, influenced by new models of masculinity and femininity.
- An unusually detailed model of married life in the eighteenth century, which stresses co-dependency between husband and wife
- Charts thinking towards violence and adultery in the eighteenth century, focusing as much on men's needs and dependence as on those of women
- Uses a combination of sources to provide social and gender insights into married life
Reviews & endorsements
"It is lucidly written, beautifully organzied, and painstakingly researched."
Journal of Social History, Reform and Social Change
"This is a deeply researched and carefully argued book, and it makes a very important contribution to both family and gender history. Bailey's work should be immediately influential among family historians, and it should generate much discussion among historians of gender. Indeed, in a field already rich with the subtle works of such authors as Margaret Hunt, Laura Gowing, and Anna Clark, Bailey stakes out her own ground and demands that we continue to reassess and render more nuanced our understanding of ideologies and experiences of patriarchy and gender relationships in the eighteenth century."
H-Albion
Product details
August 2003Hardback
9780521810586
262 pages
229 × 152 × 19 mm
0.56kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: assessing marriage
- 2. 'To have and to hold': analysing married life
- 3. 'For better, for worse': resolving marital difficulties
- 4. 'An honourable estate': marital roles in the household
- 5. 'With all my worldly goods I thee endow': spouses' contributions and possessions within marriage
- 6. 'Wilt thou obey him and serve him': the marital power balance
- 7. 'Forsaking all other': marital chastity
- 8. 'Till death us do part': life after a failed marriage
- 9. 'Mutual society, help and comfort': conclusion
- Bibliography.