Family Men
Fatherhood and Masculinity in Britain, 1914-1960
Published on 15. January 2015
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-19-967490-9 (ISBN)
Description
Fathers are often neglected in histories of family life in Britain. Family Men provides the first academic study of fathers and families in the period from the First World War to the end of the 1950s. It takes a thematic approach, examining different aspects of fatherhood, from the duties it encompassed to the ways in which it related to men's identities. The historical approach is socio-cultural: each chapter examines a wide range of historical source materials in order to analyse both cultural representations of fatherhood and related social norms, as well as exploring the practices and experiences of individuals and families. It uncovers the debates surrounding parenting and family life and tells the stories of men and their children.
While many historians have examined men's relationship to the home and family in histories of gender, family life, domestic spaces, and class cultures more generally, few have specifically examined fathers as crucial family members, as historical actors, and as emotional individuals. The history of fatherhood is extremely significant to contemporary debate: assumptions about fatherhood in the past are constantly used to support arguments about the state of fatherhood today and the need for change or otherwise in the future. Laura King charts men's changing experiences of fatherhood, suggesting that although the roles and responsibilities fulfilled by men did not shift rapidly, their relationships, position in the family, and identities underwent significant change between the start of the First World War and the 1960s.
While many historians have examined men's relationship to the home and family in histories of gender, family life, domestic spaces, and class cultures more generally, few have specifically examined fathers as crucial family members, as historical actors, and as emotional individuals. The history of fatherhood is extremely significant to contemporary debate: assumptions about fatherhood in the past are constantly used to support arguments about the state of fatherhood today and the need for change or otherwise in the future. Laura King charts men's changing experiences of fatherhood, suggesting that although the roles and responsibilities fulfilled by men did not shift rapidly, their relationships, position in the family, and identities underwent significant change between the start of the First World War and the 1960s.
Reviews / Votes
Overall, Family Men makes a significant and original contribution to the histories of gender, family and everyday life in twentieth-century Britain, marking it as essential reading for scholars interested in those fields. It adds complexity and nuance to our understanding of both masculinity and fatherhood, uncovers the multiplicity of men's, largely unexplored, family identities and experiences, and effectively demonstrates that fathers have been central to both the cultural construction and lived experience of family life during this period. More research into fatherhood in the twentieth century is required; and this book provides an exceptional starting point for the development of this historiography. * Aimee McCullough, History * the analysis of Family Men ... [reveals] how small and subtle shifts in sensibility and behaviour, replicated millions of times in millions of homes over the course of several decades could amount to a major transformation in British mens lives. This is the kind of complex social change that only patient, sensitive scholarship can capture and explain. In Family Men, Laura King proves herself more than equal to this task, and her book deserves to be widely read. It can only be hoped that others interested in the 20th-century history of men and masculinity will follow her lead. * Helen McCarthy, Reviews in History * Family Men marks an original intervention into histories of masculinity and parenthood, both in regard to its engagement with recent histories of emotion and in the way it complicates existing chronologies in attitudes towards fathers across the century, displaying a laudable concern to identify continuities as well as changes in fatherly involvement in family life ... I recommend Family Men as an excellent contribution to histories of modern Britain, emotion, and masculinity and as a model of rigorous and sensitive scholarly analysis. * Eloise Moss, Journal of Social History * King effectively establishes the value of studying fatherhood in order to consider the broader history of masculinity. The work is deeply researched and well documented, and the ideas presented are intriguing ... this is a much-needed book that should prompt others to examine the history of fatherhood through the same kind of varied lens that King has so compellingly employed. * Paul R. Deslandes, American Historical Review * Family Men offers its readers sustained and convincing attention to the make-up of mid twentieth century masculinity in realms of culture and everyday experience. * Lucy Delap, Family & Community History * [A] valuable and suggestive hypothesis * Journal of Modern History *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
2 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
536 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-967490-9 (9780199674909)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2020
Oxford University Press
€40.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
01/2020
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download
E-Book
01/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download
Person
Laura King is a Research Fellow within the School of History at the University of Leeds. Having completed a PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2011, she then moved to the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, before commencing her fellowship at Leeds in 2012. As well as researching the history of fatherhood in twentieth-century Britain, Laura has developed a number of public engagement initiatives around fatherhood, and her current role involves supporting researchers at Leeds to ensure their research has significance outside academia. You can follow her on Twitter @DrLauraKing.
Content
Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. 'Brought Me Anything, Dad?' The Father as Provider ; 3. 'Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'? The Father's Roles in the Family ; 4. A Good Pal? Fathers' Emotional Relationships ; 5. Master of the House? The Father's Position, Power, and Authority ; 6. Performing Fatherhood and Masculinity: Parenting and Gender Identities ; Conclusion: Changing Fathers, Changing Men?