By John C. G. Röhl (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) and David Hunt First published in 1998, this is a study, based on DNA sequencing, that traces the porphyria stain through the genealogical maze of Europe's royal dynasties to the present day descendants of the Houses of Hanover and Windsor, and the consequences it might have had … Continued
By Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) Slavery is America's family secret, a partially hidden phantom that continues to haunt our national imagination. Remembering Generations explores how three contemporary African American writers artistically represent this notion in novels about the enduring effects of slavery on the descendants of slaves in the post-civil rights era. Focusing on … Continued
Edited by David Warren Sabean (NHC Fellow, 2008–09) and Christopher H. Johnson Recently considerable interest has developed about the degree to which anthropological approaches to kinship can be used for the study of the long-term development of European history. From the late middle ages to the dawn of the twentieth century, kinship – rather than … Continued
By Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (NHC Fellow, 1996–97) Descendants of a prominent slaveholding family, Elizabeth, Grace, and Katharine Lumpkin were raised in a culture of white supremacy. While Elizabeth remained a lifelong believer, her younger sisters sought their fortunes in the North, reinventing themselves as radical thinkers whose literary works and organizing efforts brought the nation’s … Continued
By Theodore Evergates (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) Theodore Evergates provides the first systematic analysis of the aristocracy in the county of Champagne under the independent counts. He argues that three factors—the rise of the comital state, fiefholding, and the conjugal family—were critical to shaping a loose assortment of baronial and knightly families into an aristocracy with … Continued
By Bertram Wyatt-Brown (NHC Fellow, 1989–90; 1998–99) The novels of Walker Percy–The Moviegoer, Lancelot, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome to name a few–have left a permanent mark on twentieth-century Southern fiction; yet the history of the Percy family in America matches anything, perhaps, that he could have created. Two centuries of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, … Continued
By R. W. B. Lewis (NHC Fellow, 1989–90) Lewis presents an account of one of the foremost intellectual families in American history. He begins with the originator's, William James of Albany, emigration in 1789 from Ireland and concludes with the death in 1916 of the great novelist Henry James. The emphasis throughout is the family … Continued
By Michael Grossberg (NHC Fellow, 1987–88) A Judgment for Solomon tells the story of the d'Hauteville case, a controversial child custody battle fought in 1840. It uses the story of one couple's bitter fight over their son to explore some timebound and timeless features of American legal culture. In a narrative analysis, it recounts how … Continued
By Bertram Wyatt-Brown (NHC Fellow, 1989–90; 1998–99) The Percys, one the most distinguished families in the South, are notable not only for their prominence in the political and economic development of the Mississippi Delta but also for their literary creativity. In The Literary Percys, noted historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown examines the role of gender and family history … Continued
By Richard A. Soloway (NHC Fellow, 1986–87) Richard Soloway offers a compelling and authoritative study of the relationship of the eugenics movement to the dramatic decline in the birthrate and family size in twentieth-century Britain. Working in a tradition of hereditarian determinism which held fast to the premise that "like tends to beget like," eugenicists … Continued