Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and History of Family Violence--Boston, 1880-1960 - Softcover

Gordon, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252070798 ISBN 13: 9780252070792

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2002

Synopsis

"In this unflinching history of family violence, the historian Linda Gordon traces policies on child abuse and neglect, wife-beating, and incest from 1880 to 1960. Drawing on hundreds of case records from social agencies devoted to dealing with the problem, Gordon chronicles the changing visibility of family violence as gender, family, and political ideologies shifted. From the "discovery" of family violence in the 1870s - when it was first identified as a social, rather than personal, problem - to the women's and civil rights movements of the twentieth century, "Heroes of Their Own Lives" illustrates how public perceptions of marriage, poverty, alcoholism, mental illness, and responsibility worked for and against the victims of family violence. Powerful, moving, and tightly argued, "Heroes of Their Own Lives" shows family violence to be an indicator of larger social problems. Examining its sources as well as its treatment, Gordon offers both an honest understanding of the problem and an unromantic view of the difficulties in stopping it. "

About this title

Review

ADVANCE PRAISE "Feminist scholarship at its best." -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Linda Gordon is the Florence Kelley Professor of History at New York University. She is the author of numerous books including Dorothea Lange and Impounded, and won the Bancroft Prize for The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. She lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0252070798
• ISBN 13: 9780252070792
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400