Fragile Families : Marriage and Domestic Life in the Age of Bourgeois Modernity (1750-1900) / Joachim Eibach ; translated by Alissa Jones Nelson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eibach, Joachim, 1960- author.

Contributor:

Jones Nelson, Alissa, translator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Families.

Marriage.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berlin : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2023]

Summary:

In the era of bourgeois modernity (1750-1900), the family is as valued as it is vulnerable. It constitutes a community of care, conflict, and emotion. Time and again, it is evoked as a bond of love as well as a moral institution. Yet both love and morality are fragile. A more detailed exploration reveals that domestic life during this period was much more colorful, open, and dynamic - and also more prone to crisis - than one might expect given the vaunted view of the family that characterized the heyday of the bourgeoisie. This book rewrites the history of the modern family. Self-narratives - primarily diaries - written by members of eight families from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria serve as sources for this research. The focus extends far beyond the bourgeoisie. With a micro-historical eye, the author reconstructs family histories from the peasant milieu to the patrician elite, from the parsonage to the educated bourgeoisie; he considers the domestic life of a journeyman craftsman, a couple's descent from the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie, the effects of an itinerant childhood among the proletariat, and the strain of being caught between a bourgeois family and artistic individuality. Many of these aspects point beyond bourgeois modernity to the family in our time.

Contents:

Intro

Acknowledgements

Contents

Chapter 1 Fragile Families? Stylish Staging and Everyday Disorder

Chapter 2 Research and Sources

Chapter 3 Love and a House of His Own: The Peasant Ulrich Bräker Seeks a Wife

Chapter 4 Pious Everyday Life in the Bailiwick and the Patrician Milieu: Henriette Stettler-Herport

Chapter 5 Bourgeois Marriage and Open Domesticity: Ferdinand and Caroline Beneke

Chapter 6 The Parsonage as Labyrinth: Ursula and Abraham Bruckner-Eglinger

Chapter 7 A Traveling Journeyman's Home: Friedrich Anton Püschmann

Chapter 8 Marital Crisis and Social Decline Among the Petite Bourgeoisie: Barbara and Johann Baumgartner

Chapter 9 Growing Up Among the Proletariat: Friedrich Engels' Report and Adelheid Popp

Chapter 10 From a Bourgeois Family to an Artists' Marriage: Paula Becker and Otto Modersohn

Chapter 11 The Family: Decline or Resilience?

List of Figures

Bibliography

Index of Persons

Index of Subjects.

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from pdf title page (de Gruyter, viewed on April 8, 2024).

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Print version: Eibach, Joachim Fragile Families

ISBN:

9783111081700

3111081702