Abstract

Recently considerable interest has developed about the degree to which anthropological approaches to kinship can be used for the study of the long-term development of European history. From the late middle ages to the dawn of the twentieth century, kinship - rather than declining, as is often assumed - was twice reconfigured in dramatic ways and became increasingly significant as a force in historical change, with remarkable similarities across European society. Applying interdisciplinary approaches from social and cultural history and literature and focusing on sibling relationships, this volume takes up the challenge of examining the systemic and structural development of kinship over the long term by looking at the close inner-familial dynamics of ruling families (the Hohenzollerns), cultural leaders (the Mendelssohns), business and professional classes, and political figures (the Gladstones)in France, Italy, Germany, and England. It offers insight into the current issues in kinship studies and draws from a wide range of personal documents: letters, autobiographies, testaments, memoirs, as well as genealogies and works of art.

“In all cases, the research is solid, not drawing from a single source, such as a series of   letters, but including a broad range of historical evidence. The analyses themselves are nicely nuanced and all connect with the main theoretical issues of the field, providing a lively discussion and indicating new directions for research. Scholars from many fields focusing on family and kinship, as well as general readers with an interest in family relations, will enjoy and find stimulation in this volume.”  ·  Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“This volume, and the wider project of which it forms one part, are significant contributions to the current re-assessment of kinship, and planned volumes on transnational families and the importance of blood in defining kin are eagerly awaited.”  ·  The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“The study of kinship remains a lively concern among historians, sociologists, and anthropologists. One of the very attractive features of the volume is its crossdisciplinary representation from these fields but also from literature…[and] the mix of senior and junior scholars.”  ·  Mary Lindemann, University of Miami

“The essays are of uniform excellence and interest, written by established scholars, including very well known scholars; the essays also make a remarkably coherent set…[and] are well focused…the research is valuable, offering original perspectives on a number of issues, from kinship reckoning to industrialization, to emotional history. This is a very useful, and widely cited companion to the previous volume on kinship in Europe, a great introduction to the current research.”  ·  William Reddy, Duke University

Christopher H. Johnson is Professor Emeritus of History and member of the Academy of Scholars at Wayne State University. He has held fellowships from the Leverhulme and the Guggenheim Foundations as well as the Social Science Research Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His publications include Utopian Communism in France: Cabet and the Icarians, 1839-1851 (Cornell, 1974) (nominated for a National Book Award in 1975); Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950 (Wayne State, 1989), and The Life and Death of Industrial Languedoc, 1700–1920: The Politics of De-Industrialization (Oxford, 1995).

David Warren Sabean is Henry J. Bruman Professor of German History at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has taught at the University of East Anglia, University of Pittsburgh, and Cornell, and has been a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen, the Maison des Science de l’Homme, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the American Academy in Berlin, and the National Humanities Center. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His publications include: Power in the Blood: Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984); Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700–1870 (Cambridge, 1990); Kinship in Neckarhausen, 1700–1870 (Cambridge, 1998). He is co-editor with Simon Teuscher and Jon Mathieu of Kinship in Europe: Approaches to Long-Term Development (1300-1900) (Berghahn Books, 2007).