By Lawrence Stone (NHC Fellow, 1990–91; 1991–92) This book offers a set of detailed case studies about how the break-up and dissolution of marriages was contrived before the first Divorce Act in 1857. Individuals in their own words explain their actions and feelings about one another in dramatic court-room confrontations, while behind the scenes they … Continued
Edited by Ákos Östör (NHC Fellow, 1980–81), Lina Fruzzetti, and Steve Barnett Using rich ethnographic detail, this work looks at the extent to which new models of kinship, caste and marriage translate into regional and Indian Models. The contributors, all distinguished scholars of South Asia, tackle different geographical areas and such diverse topics as hierarchy, … Continued
By Barbara J. Harris (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) Portraits of aristocratic women from the Yorkist and Tudor periods reveal elaborately clothed and bejeweled nobility, exemplars of their families' wealth. Unlike their male counterparts, their sitters have not been judged for their professional accomplishments. In this groundbreaking study, Barbara J. Harris argues that the roles of aristocratic … Continued
By Jean H. Hagstrum (NHC Fellow, 1985–86; 1986–87) A magisterial book by one of our most distinguished literary historians, Esteem Enlivened by Desire illuminates (and celebrates) the ideal of lasting love from antiquity to the high Renaissance. Love that leads to marriage is a relatively recent "invention," or so critics and historians often say. But in this … Continued
By M. Teresa Tavormina (NHC Fellow, 1983–84) Kindly Similitude is the first study to offer a detailed reading of the many passages in Piers Plowman A, B, and C concerned with marriage and family, and to place them within the frameworks of contemporary social history, law, theology, exegesis, and literature. The author shows how Langland draws on the … Continued
By Judith Evans Grubbs (NHC Fellow, 1993–94) This is a new and thought-provoking look at law and marriage in late antiquity, dealing particularly with the legislation on marriage enacted by the Roman emperor Constantine. Though Constantine is usually accepted as being the first Christian emperor, Judith Grubbs argues here that the extent of Christian influence … Continued
By Ginger S. Frost (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) Living in sin is the first book-length study of cohabitation in nineteenth-century England, based on research into the lives of hundreds of couples. 'Common-law' marriages did not have any legal basis, so the Victorian courts had to wrestle with unions that resembled marriage in every way, yet did … Continued
Edited by Robert R. Edwards (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) and Stephen Spector (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) In this volume a variety of perspectives reevaluate the nature of friendship, desire, and the olde daunce of love in the Middle Ages. Challenging earlier scholarly notions about medieval marriage, this book suggests and explores the legitimacy of marital friendship, affection, and mutuality. … Continued
By Barbara A. Hanawalt (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) London became an international center for import and export trade in the late Middle Ages. The export of wool, the development of luxury crafts and the redistribution of goods from the continent made London one of the leading commercial cities of Europe. While capital for these ventures came … Continued
By Lawrence Stone (NHC Fellow, 1990–91; 1991–92)