Childless men in early modern England

Berry, Helen; Foyster, Elizabeth

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511495694.009

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…As such, men fashioned a sense of self and a public reputation from their biological and social role as fathers: even childless men. 13 This work also demonstrates that historians must explore men's role in the home with care and not assume that their lack of domestic labours includes failure to be involved with 14 For instance, it was argued that 19th-and 20th-century fatherhood was culturally 'invisible' because closer attention to motherhood and the mother-child bond resulted in attention to fatherhood waning. 15 This is challenged by Julie Marie Strange and Laura King who show that when motherhood undergoes visual and textual 'intensification' in public discussion, so, too, does fatherhood.…”

Section: Gender and Parentingmentioning

confidence: 97%

The History of Mum and Dad: Recent Historical Research on Parenting in England from the 16th to 20th centuries

Bailey

2014

History Compass

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Parenting has a complex but only recently examined history. This article surveys this scholarship, which is driven by the histories of gender, emotions, medicine, bodies, material culture, class and deviance to uncover how parenting is socially and culturally constructed and therefore changes over time. It traces several significant arguments. First, shifting gender constructions have reshaped expectations about mothers' and fathers' roles. Thus, while paternal breadwinning and maternal care is always important, at times fathers have been commended for caring for infants and mothers for economic provision of offspring. Secondly, the material aspects of life have powerfully affected parenting. Until relatively recently, parents struggled against implacably high rates of infant and child mortality: nursing children, preparing them for death and the afterlife, and coping with grief. Therefore, although the depth of feeling over this remained consistent, varying emotional regimes have influenced forms of parental expression and practice. Parents' responsibilities for their children's health at times of inadequate medical treatment often left them physically and mentally exhausted and woefully disempowered. Other limitations or freedoms were imposed on mothering and fathering by the objects and spaces associated with bringing up children. Thirdly, levels of wealth and social class affect parenting, with working‐class, poor and lone parents especially vulnerable to family disruption due to poverty, ill‐health and under‐ or unemployment. Fourthly, the parameters of bad parenting shift over time, and even those mothers and fathers who killed their children were viewed differently over time and place as cultural sensibilities shifted. Finally, the article concludes with some suggestions for the further development of this exciting new field.

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Section: Gender and Parentingmentioning

confidence: 97%

The History of Mum and Dad: Recent Historical Research on Parenting in England from the 16th to 20th centuries

Bailey

2014

History Compass

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“…Couples who were unable to conceive might take comfort from preachers who placed greater emphasis on the importance of companionship rather than reproduction within marriage, and whilst impotency and barrenness were subjects of satirical mockery in print, amongst the mass of the population being aff licted with such a condition was regarded as a misfortune rather than a disaster. 10 Evans, Berry and Foyster focused on biological fatherhood, but others have examined the social aspects of the role. Anthony Fletcher has argued that amongst the 17th-century gentry, most fathers were benign patriarchs, working to ensure deference and obedience from their children but also displaying real love and affection for them, and with the impact of sensibility and romanticism, the tone and emotional content of fatherhood softened further after 1750.…”

Section: Fatherhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manhood and Masculinity in Early Modern England

Reinke-Williams

2014

History Compass

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This article provides an overview of some key developments in the historiography of manhood and masculinity in early modern England in the last decade, focusing in particular on how ideals of manhood and masculinity were shaped by ideas about the body and sexuality, as well as experiences and practices of fatherhood, sociability and politics in England between the mid‐16th and mid‐18th centuries. The article argues that the history of manhood and masculinity is a vibrant area but that some questions relating to manhood and masculinity remain underexplored, especially in relation to politics. It also questions whether enough effort has been taken to consider the 17th century as a whole, with much work on the history of manhood and masculinity continuing to focus on the periods before 1640 or after 1660, reiterating earlier calls for more attention to be paid to thinking about continuities and changes in manhood and masculinity across the early modern period in England.

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“…In addition, their otherwise exemplary consideration of the extent to which fatherhood contributed to men's gender identity and patriarchal positions draws only on married men who were childless. 19 As David Hussey and Margaret Ponsonby point out, where the unmarried man has been studied, he has recurrently been cast in terms of 'distinct archetypes', among them one that presupposed a man seeking matrimony. 20 Amanda Vickery's chapter devoted to 'men alone' in her analysis of what it meant to be 'at home' in Georgian England, to take another example, argued that '[d]omesticity for bachelors was fragmented and effortful, while their manhood remained in suspense', this image of suspension between marital states implying the inevitable anticipation of marriage.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Pleasures of a Single Life: Envisioning Bachelorhood in Early Eighteenth-Century England

Rosenheim¹

2015

Gender & History

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Childless men in early modern England

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

The History of Mum and Dad: Recent Historical Research on Parenting in England from the 16th to 20th centuries

The History of Mum and Dad: Recent Historical Research on Parenting in England from the 16th to 20th centuries

Manhood and Masculinity in Early Modern England

The Pleasures of a Single Life: Envisioning Bachelorhood in Early Eighteenth-Century England

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