jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) (10/27/85)
Some folks having been making a number of assertions about the nature of marriage and women's roles in marriage in the past, which have not been very firmly grounded in historical fact. Some folks appear to be quite confused, in fact, about what is available to us in the historical record, and still other folks have clamored for references. I have looked over my bookshelves and pulled some titles which should be readily accessible in any bookstore or library, and listed them below. Most of the authors are well-known historians and anthropologists, and their writing is based on extensive research into parish records, letters, diaries, tax rolls, etc. There is a surprising amount of information surviving which describes life in Europe and later, the United States, in particular detail. I suggest people quit arguing and do some reading for a change. _________________ Stone, Lawrence "The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800", Harper & Row, 1977, 800 pp. Duby, Georges "The Knight, the Lady and the Priest:The making of modern marriage in medieval France", Pantheon Books, 1983, 311 pp. Gay, Peter "Education of the Senses", Oxford University Press, 1984, 534 pp. Collis, Louise "Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: The life and times of Margery Kempe", Harper Colophon Books, 1983, 269 pp. Kaplan, Marion (ed) "The Marriage Bargain: Women and Dowries in European History", Harrington Park Press, 1985, 182 pp. Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel "Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error", Vintage Books, 1978, 383 pp. Fraser, Antonia "The Weaker Vessel", Knopf, 1984, 544 pp. Tuchman, Barbara "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century", Knopf, 1978, 677 pp. -- jcpatilla