History of private life, volume 5: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times 5

This is the final volume of an already standard work on private life in Western civilization from Greco-Roman times to the present. The entire work was planned by Phillipe Ariès and Georges Duby in the tradition of the Annales group; this volume was first published in France as Histoire de la vie privee: de la Première Guerre mondiale à nos jours (1987). Editors Prost and Vincent have added sections on Italian, German, and American families to this English edition, thereby making it more comprehensive. Like the previous four volumes (v.l: CH, Jun'87; v.3: CH, Oct'89), this one has a theme--personal identity. The editors and authors pursue this theme in the same contexts used in the earlier volumes: in the workplace and the city, where private property and private activities have been subjects of controversy and objects of state control; in the home and family, where, increasingly, even sexual matters are not private; and in middle groups between state and individual--such as church. or mosque, or party--where more and more personal dramas are acted out in a world of cultural diversity. As Duby's foreword in the first volume indicated, A History of Private Life aims at an in-depth analysis of the evolution of personality as concept and reality in the Western world. Now complete in French and in English translation, the work is a tribute to the Annales approach of studying structural changes over long periods and to the late great historian Ariès, on whose schema Duby and the other editors drew. --Reviewed by T. J. Knight in Choice, 29 (April 1992), p. 1282. This fifth and final volume in an award-winning series charts the remarkable inner history of our times from the tumult of World War I to the present day, when personal identity was released from its moorings in gender, family, social class, religion, politics, and nationality. Nine brilliant and bold historians present a dynamic picture of cultures in transition and in the process scrutinize a myriad of subjects--the sacrament of confession, volunteer hotlines, Nazi policies toward the family, the Baby Boom, evolving sexuality, the history of contraception, and ever-changing dress codes. They draw upon many unexpected sources, including divorce hearing transcripts, personal ads, and little-known demographic and consumer data. Comprehensive and astute, Riddles of Identity in Modern Times chronicles a period when the differentiation of life into public and private realms, once a luxury of the wealthy, gradually spread throughout the population. For better or worse, people can now be alone. This fifth volume portrays Italian, German, and American family life in the twentieth century Library Has Vol. 1-5. V. 1. From Pagan Rome To Byzantium / Paul Veyne, Editor -- V. 2. Revelations Of The Medieval World / Georges Duby, Editor -- V. 3. Passions Of The Renaissance / Roger Chartier, Editor -- V. 4. From The Fires Of Revolution To The Great War / Dr Michelle Perrot, Editor -- 5. Riddles Of Identity In Modern Times / Antoine Prost And Gérard Vincent, Editors. Philippe Ariès And Georges Duby, General Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Self-renewing 2017 Uoy This fifth and final volume of an award-winning series charts the changing inner history of our times from the tumult of World War I to the 1990s, when personal identity was released from its moorings in gender, family, social class, religion, politics and nationality.