Contested Paternity: Constructing Families in Modern France - Hardcover

Fuchs, Rachel G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801888328 ISBN 13: 9780801888328

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

Synopsis

xii 351p hardback, dustjacket, as new

About this title

Review:

"Accessible and of interest to readers from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary junctures."

(Sylvia Schafer Clio)

"Through her comprehensive study of paternity suits and the impact of banning them from 1804 and 1812, Rachel Fuchs has produced a tour de force on the history of family law in France from the eighteenth century to modern times."

(Máire Fedelma Cross French Studies)

"[Fuchs] effectively links battles over paternity and parental responsibility to wider political developments... highly recommended."

(Choice)

"Fuchs's treatment of the theme of constructions of paternity is stimulating, clear and yet highly refined... With her considerable methodological expertise as a social historian of France, she weaves an exceedingly colourful picture of disputes around paternity."

(French History)

"Fascinating in every particular... One of the most important aspects of Contested Paternity is the way in which Fuchs uses the history of paternity suits as a way to analyze changing attitudes towards fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood."

(Jean Elisabeth Pedersen H-France)

"A compelling study that examines the epochal shift in French fatherhood over the past two centuries."

(Kristen Stromberg Childers American Historical Review)

"The cases that Fuchs presents are fascinating."

(Caroline Ford Journal of Interdisciplinary History)

"This book's scope and framework make it a significant addition to the history of families in modern France."

(Deborah Houk Schocket Dalhousie French Studies)

"Fuch's book provides us with an excellent guide to understanding how these legal notions originated and how they have evolved in modern French history."

(Camille Robcis Social History)

"In this splendid study, Rachel Fuchs takes an entirely new angle on gender history... On completing the book, all historians will say as I did, 'I wish I'd thought of that.' Fuchs not only thought of it; she did it and did it very well indeed."

(Charles Sowerwine H-France)

From the Back Cover:

Winner, J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association
Winner, Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians
Winner, Charles E. Smith Award, European History section of the Southern Historical Association

This groundbreaking study examines complex notions of paternity and fatherhood in modern France through the lens of contested paternity. Drawing from archival judicial records on paternity suits, paternity denials, deprivation of paternity, and adoption from the end of the eighteenth century through the twentieth, Rachel G. Fuchs reveals how paternity was defined and how it functioned in the culture and experiences of individual men and women.

"A masterpiece in French social, cultural, and gender history."―Lenard Berlanstein, University of Virginia

"Fuchs opens up a new window into the history of families by perceptively examining the legal and customary ways that paternity was negotiated in French society from the old regime to the present."―Robert A. Nye, Oregon State University

"Fascinating in every particular... One of the most important aspects of Contested Paternity is the way in which Fuchs uses the history of paternity suits as a way to analyze changing attitudes towards fatherhood, motherhood, and childhood."―H-France

"A compelling study that examines the epochal shift in French fatherhood over the past two centuries."―American Historical Review

"A tour de force on the history of family law in France from the eighteenth century to modern times."―French Studies

"Fuchs's treatment of the theme of constructions of paternity is stimulating, clear, and yet highly refined... With her considerable methodological expertise as a social historian of France, she weaves an exceedingly colorful picture of disputes around paternity."―French History

Rachel G. Fuchs is a professor of history at Arizona State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0801888328
• ISBN 13: 9780801888328
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368