History of Private Life, Volume V: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times [Hardcover]

Antoine Prost (Editor), Gerard Vincent (Editor), Phillippe Ariès (Series Editor), Georges Duby (Series Editor), Arthur Goldhammer (Translator)

Book Description

Series: History of Private Life | Publication Date: October 1, 1991

This fifth and final volume in an award-winning series charts the inner history of our times from the tumult of World War I to the 1990s. Nine historians present a picture of cultures in transition and in the process scrutinize a myriad of subjects - the sacrament of confession, volunteer hotlines, Nazi policies toward the family, the baby boom, evolving sexuality, the history of contraception, and ever-changing dress codes. They draw upon unexpected sources, including divorce hearing transcripts, personal ads, and little-known demographic and consumer data. Perhaps the most notable pattern to emerge is a polarizing of public and private realms. Productive labour shifts from the home to an impersonal public setting. Salaried or corporate employment replaces many independent, entrepreneurial jobs, and workers of all kinds aggressively pursue their leisure time. Zoning laws segregate industrial and commercial areas from residential neighbourhoods, which are no longer a supportive "theatre" of benign surveillance, gossip, and mutual concern, but an assemblage of aloof and anonymous individuals or families. Scattered with personal possessions and appliances, homes grow large by yesterday's standards and are marked by elaborate spatial subdivisions. Men and women are obsessed with health, fitness, diet and appearance as the body becomes the focal point of personal identity. In the search for sexual and individualistic fulfillment, romantic love becomes the foundation of marriage. Couples marry at an older age; families are smaller. The divorce rate rises, and with it the number of single-family households. Women, entering the work forces in unprecedented numbers, frequently function as both breadwinner and homemaker. The authors interrelate these patterns with the changing roles of state and religion in family matters, the socialization of education and elder care, the growth of feminism, the impact of media on private life, and the nature of secrecy. "Riddles of Identity in Modern Times" chronicles a period when the differentiation of life into public and private realms, once a luxury of the wealthy, gradually spread throughout the population. This final volume, differing from the French edition, portrays Italian, German and American family family life in the 20th century. The authors, Chiara Saraceno, Ingeborg Weber-Kellerman and Elaine Tyler May enlarge the European and Atlantic canvas that depicts the modern identity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These volumes, edited by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby, are aimed at both the scholar and layperson who wonder how people lived and behaved from ancient times to the present: "their thoughts, their feelings, their bodies, their attitudes, their habits and habitations, their codes, their marks, and their signs." The focus is on western European life, primarily French.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The wealth of materials is impressive, and Arthur Goldhammer's skillful translation captures the contributors' voices...Lavishly illustrated with well-captioned reproductions. (Joseph Coates Chicago Tribune )

A History of Private Life has been an immense undertaking...The series has deservedly attracted huge praise from historians of all hues for its scholarly imagination and beautiful presentation. It is thus an unusually strong recommendation to say that the final volume is worthy of its predecessors. (Andrew Freeman Financial Times )

The text is leavened with an abundant display of imagery...The entire series amounts to a vast treasury of human thought and experience, a sourcebook of ideas and images. At times lyrical, then analytical, but always provocative...A tool for the analyst and the novelist as much as the historian and anthropologist. (Jonathan Kirsch Los Angeles Times )

There's something wonderfully audacious about the very concept of 'History of Private Life,' a five-volume study that seeks to reveal the most intimate details of everyday life over three millennia of Western European history. Here is one scholarly work in which the bathroom and the bordello figure as importantly as the storming of the Bastille or the defeat of Napoleon ... A fascinating glimpse into the distant and exotic past. (Jonathan Kirsch Los Amgeles Times )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press; First Edition edition (October 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067439979X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674399792
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #907,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book in fascinating series., June 5, 2009

By 

Grammy P - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of Private Life, Volume V: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times (Paperback)

Interesting book, part of a fascinating series. This is Volume 5, and I would recommend that anyone interested in ordinary life in various periods of time (especially family life) also buy the other books, which start with Pagan life and move forward to this book. (There is also another book, Volume 6, which I also plan to acquire.)

This book, like each of those in this series, is well-researched, then written in an easy-to-read style. It is not necessary to read any other books of this series to enjoy it, nor to start at the beginning of the series.

This book, is very interesting, and well-worth reading.

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent summary of social history, March 10, 2010

By 

M. Migala (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: History of Private Life, Volume V: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times (Paperback)

I found this edition less insightful than their earlier editions on Roman and Greek Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Some of their comments seem trite. Yet, overall it provides a good history of modern social life.