David Herlihy (d. 1991) was Barnaby Conrad and Mary Critchfield Keeney Professor and Professor of History at Brown University.
Immensely stimulating…[this book] contains a vast amount of
original scholarship. Herlihy has a rare talent for incorporating
lively narrative evidence into the context suggested by
quantifiable data and writing about it with grace and verve… This
book will provide the analytical framework against which all
subsequent regional studies will be tested.
*American Historical Review*
Herlihy’s work will undoubtedly form a centerpoint for subsequent
debate on the development of the medieval household. There is much
to ponder here… Provocative…unearthing a rich vein of narrative and
other material, it commands the attention of all historians
interested in the early European family.
*Continuity and Change*
Here is a happy marriage: a preeminent historian tackling the
thorniest of problems, household and family in medieval Europe. The
result is altogether felicitous, a rich, detailed, well-written,
and fascinating book of extraordinary range, one designed for
students and general readers that will also be invaluable to
specialists.
*Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies*
Herlihy’s excellent work makes accessible persuasive
counterarguments against the theory that affection for children
developed only recently. Herlihy…demonstrates how modern society
moved toward its definition of ‘family’ and shows its emergence in
the medieval period. He uses scattered and diverse source material
to trace the development of the family from Roman times to the
medieval development of common expectations of family life
applicable to all classes. The sources, ranging from well-known
classical and medieval writers such as Aristotle, Tacitus, Aquinas,
and Augustine to monastic archives, sermons, lives of saints, and
civil archives, provide models and reflections of family life,
including the church’s use of scripture to establish marital and
family standards applicable to ruler and serf alike… Herlihy helps
overcome the negative stereotype of the medieval family by showing
how present-day standards for family life emerged in that earlier
time. This book will become the standard source for family history
in cultural context. In spite of its erudition, it is accessible to
undergraduates… [A] fascinating, readable, and scholarly work.
*Choice*
Written in a clear and vigorous prose, Herlihy’s history of the
European family and his compelling explanation for the emergence of
our very concept of the family should become starting points for
any further discussions of this much discussed topic.
*Anthony Molho, Brown University*
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