So, we’ve got our first glimpse of Reign, the CW show about Mary, Queen of Scots. The young man appears to be Francis, Dauphin of France, giving Mary a remarkably casual welcome to France. Mary comments on how tall Francis … Read more →
Oh, the Victorians. I’m not going to go through the remainder of Stephanie Coontz’s book, although I definitely recommend reading it. But I did want to talk about Victorian ideas of marriage and gender, because we still base many of … Read more →
This is part of my discussion of Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History. You can read Part I, Part II, and Part III. Okay, I think I’m going to have to discuss the rest of this book at a sprint. It’s … Read more →
This is the third installment of my discussion of Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History. You can start with Part I and Part II. Early Christianity was deeply ambivalent about marriage. Celibacy was preferable to marriage, but marriage was preferable to … Read more →
This is a continuation of my review of Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History. You can read my first installment here. So, agriculture had a huge effect on human society. It allowed people to hoard surpluses, and the wide-reaching reciprocity arrangements … Read more →
I’ve been slowly reading Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage. I think it’s a good overview of changing marriage patterns, mostly in the West, but with reference to a variety of cultures. … Read more →
The Jamestown stuff was quite grim, so maybe it’s best to end on a more pleasant historical note. Historian Ulinka Rublack of the University of Cambridge enlisted historical dressmaker Jenny Tiramani to recreate a doublet and hose worn by a … Read more →
An excavation of the early colony of Jamestown, Virginia discovered a disturbing–although perhaps unsurprising–aspect of life during the “starving time” of 1609-1610: cannibalism. Historians already knew that a man was executed for killing and eating his pregnant wife, but last … Read more →
Think you have anxiety about dating protocol? Just be thankful you aren’t an eligible young man or lady in 1920s New York high society. This is how Emily Post describes a date in a restaurant in her 1922 Etiquette: When … Read more →
One hundred two years ago today, a devastating fire broke out in a garment factory in New York City. Within 18 minutes, 146 people were killed, most of them young immigrant women. The factory bosses locked the fire doors to … Read more →