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

by Gordon, Linda

• ISBN13: 9780252070792
• ISBN10: 0252070798
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

"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 Livesillustrates 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 Livesshows 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. "

Author Biography

Linda Gordon is a professor of history at New York University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(26)
``The Cruelty'': Child Protection, 1880-1910	27	(32)
The Progressive-Era Transformation of Child Protection, 1900-1920	59	(23)
Single Mothers and the Contradictions of Child-Protection Policy	82	(34)
``So Much for the Children Now, So Little Before'': Child Neglect and Parental Responsibility	116	(52)
``Only to Bring My Children Up Good'': Child Abuse and Social Change	168	(36)
``Be Careful About Father'': Incest, Girls' Resistance, and the Construction of Femininity	204	(46)
``The Powers of the Weak'': Wife-Beating and Battered Women's Resistance	250	(39)
Conclusion: Social Control and the ``Powers of the Weak''	289	(12)
Appendix A Research and Analysis Methods	301	(6)
Appendix B Client Characteristics	307	(6)
Notes	313	(60)
Index	373