This book is a study of the family during some of the most turbulent decades in English history, the years of the civil war and Interregnum. War and its concomitants - death, imprisonment, exile and financial hardship - placed considerable strains upon families, many of which were already divided by differing ideological allegiances. Puritans mounted attacks upon such cherished family rituals as baptism, godparenthood and church marriage. Christopher Durston examines the impact of these pressures upon the family as an institution and upon its individual members. He argues that the family emerged from the maelstrom of revolution largely intact, even strengthened, and concludes that the English people's attachment to traditional family structures played a significant role in assuring the failure of the English Revolution and the return of the monarchy in 1660. A portrait of family life during a period of intense political and religious upheaval, this book is an interesting contribution to the debate over the English Revolution and the origins of the modern family.
This text is aimed at sixth formers, undergraduates, historians of the mid-17th century, historians of the family and feminism.
- ISBN10 0631154965
- ISBN13 9780631154969
- Publish Date 5 January 1989
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 July 1992
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English