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A History of Private Life #3
История частной жизни. Том 3 От Ренессанса до эпохи Просвещения
Пятитомная «История частной жизни» — всеобъемлющее исследование, созданное в 1980-е годы группой французских, британских и американских ученых под руководством прославленных историков из Школы «Анналов» — Филиппа Арьеса и Жоржа Дюби. Пятитомник охватывает всю историю Запада с Античности до конца XX века. В третьем томе рассказывается о том, как Европа и Америка вступают в Новое время: осознание идеи индивидуальности, распространение грамотности, религиозная Реформация оказывают влияние на частную жизнь, впервые позволяя сделать ее по-настоящему приватной, меняя отношение к браку, детям и дружбе, вере, этикету и политике.
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720 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
24 people are currently reading
1278 people want to read
About the author
Philippe Ariès
79 books115 followersPhilippe Ariès (21 July 1914 – 8 February 1984) was a French medievalist and historian of the family and childhood, in the style of Georges Duby. He wrote many books on the common daily life. His most prominent works regarded the change in the western attitudes towards death.
Ariès regarded himself as an "anarchist of the right". He was initially close to the Action française but later distanced himself from it, as he viewed it as too authoritarian, hence his self-description as an "anarchist". Ariès also contributed to La Nation française, a royalist review. However, he also co-operated with many left-wing French historians, especially with Michel Foucault, who wrote his obituary.
During his life, his work was often better known in the English-speaking world than it was in France itself. He is known above all for his book L’Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (1960), which was translated into English as Centuries of Childhood (1962). This book is pre-eminent in the history of childhood, as it was essentially the first book on the subject (although some antiquarian texts were earlier). Even today, Ariès remains the standard reference to the topic. Ariès is most famous for his statement that "in medieval society, the idea of childhood did not exist". Its central thesis is that attitudes towards children were progressive and evolved over time with economic change and social advancement, until childhood, as a concept and an accepted part of family life, from the 17th century. It was thought that children were too weak to be counted and that they could disappear at any time. However, children were considered as adults as soon as they could live alone.
The book has had mixed fortunes. His contribution was profoundly significant both in that it recognised childhood as a social construction rather than as a biological given and in that it founded the history of childhood as a serious field of study. At the same time, his account of childhood has by now been widely criticised.
Ariès is likewise remembered for his invention of another field of study: the history of attitudes to death and dying. Ariès saw death, like childhood, as a social construction. His seminal work in this ambit is L'Homme devant la mort (1977), his last major book, published in the same year when his status as a historian was finally recognised by his induction into the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), as a directeur d'études.
Ariès regarded himself as an "anarchist of the right". He was initially close to the Action française but later distanced himself from it, as he viewed it as too authoritarian, hence his self-description as an "anarchist". Ariès also contributed to La Nation française, a royalist review. However, he also co-operated with many left-wing French historians, especially with Michel Foucault, who wrote his obituary.
During his life, his work was often better known in the English-speaking world than it was in France itself. He is known above all for his book L’Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (1960), which was translated into English as Centuries of Childhood (1962). This book is pre-eminent in the history of childhood, as it was essentially the first book on the subject (although some antiquarian texts were earlier). Even today, Ariès remains the standard reference to the topic. Ariès is most famous for his statement that "in medieval society, the idea of childhood did not exist". Its central thesis is that attitudes towards children were progressive and evolved over time with economic change and social advancement, until childhood, as a concept and an accepted part of family life, from the 17th century. It was thought that children were too weak to be counted and that they could disappear at any time. However, children were considered as adults as soon as they could live alone.
The book has had mixed fortunes. His contribution was profoundly significant both in that it recognised childhood as a social construction rather than as a biological given and in that it founded the history of childhood as a serious field of study. At the same time, his account of childhood has by now been widely criticised.
Ariès is likewise remembered for his invention of another field of study: the history of attitudes to death and dying. Ariès saw death, like childhood, as a social construction. His seminal work in this ambit is L'Homme devant la mort (1977), his last major book, published in the same year when his status as a historian was finally recognised by his induction into the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), as a directeur d'études.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 20, 2020
This book was really something else. I should have started with the first book in the series but it is quite a hard to find, even in better circumstances (than a frecking pandemic).
It is preoccupied by the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and how those periods helped the concept of privacy develop into what has become today. It may have stemmed from the way politics were done (figures!).
They followed the evolution of certain laws that gradually introduced in their vernacular concepts that entailed property-privatization—(and more than that) the self. The individual became a thing .
One was represented by his own deeds and actions and not so much by his community (that is a crass simplification because people still identified with a community- for example their recognized themselves as Catholics, but they started being more weary of those with which they made contact—you were no longer able to just stroll in one`s courtyard and expect lodging over night and/or food).
Another factor is the growing alphabetization of the population (this book is a study based on the French society-history), but do not imagine that those numbers were sky rocketing to the level of the current statistics. They are talking of people able to sign themselves (and that did not necessarily mean that they could write if they could read).
If you find yourself in need of a non-fiction that is both pleasantly read and at the same time quite informative this may be it.
Instagram\\my Blog\\
It is preoccupied by the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and how those periods helped the concept of privacy develop into what has become today. It may have stemmed from the way politics were done (figures!).
They followed the evolution of certain laws that gradually introduced in their vernacular concepts that entailed property-privatization—(and more than that) the self. The individual became a thing .
One was represented by his own deeds and actions and not so much by his community (that is a crass simplification because people still identified with a community- for example their recognized themselves as Catholics, but they started being more weary of those with which they made contact—you were no longer able to just stroll in one`s courtyard and expect lodging over night and/or food).
Another factor is the growing alphabetization of the population (this book is a study based on the French society-history), but do not imagine that those numbers were sky rocketing to the level of the current statistics. They are talking of people able to sign themselves (and that did not necessarily mean that they could write if they could read).
If you find yourself in need of a non-fiction that is both pleasantly read and at the same time quite informative this may be it.
Instagram\\my Blog\\
August 24, 2007
And now volume three. My reviews of the first two books in this series have garnered a fat total of 0 votes, positive or negative, so I'll make this review brief.
This book charts the transistion from the middle ages to the beginnings of the modern period. In the introduction by Aries (who's scholarship is the inspiration for this project), he makes a claim that this time period deserves to be treated as a seperate "early modern" period. It's a noble thought, but the book reads more like one would expect: a lot of the middle ages and a little of modernity, but a lack of the coherence that one sees in volumes I, II and IV.
The authors are mostly concerned with discussing two (seemingly)contradictory trends: the attempt by families to develop "private space" and the attempt by the state to intrude on that private space. Chapter two deals mostly with the first statement, chapter three with the second.
You have to keep an open mind with the Annales school of scholarship. The writers favor open ended generalizations to conclusive statements and are just as interested in providing ideas for further study as they are in answering questions.
This book charts the transistion from the middle ages to the beginnings of the modern period. In the introduction by Aries (who's scholarship is the inspiration for this project), he makes a claim that this time period deserves to be treated as a seperate "early modern" period. It's a noble thought, but the book reads more like one would expect: a lot of the middle ages and a little of modernity, but a lack of the coherence that one sees in volumes I, II and IV.
The authors are mostly concerned with discussing two (seemingly)contradictory trends: the attempt by families to develop "private space" and the attempt by the state to intrude on that private space. Chapter two deals mostly with the first statement, chapter three with the second.
You have to keep an open mind with the Annales school of scholarship. The writers favor open ended generalizations to conclusive statements and are just as interested in providing ideas for further study as they are in answering questions.
February 21, 2015
There are no dates on the photographs of extant items, which made it quite difficult to place the items in a clearer historical reference. I found that I googled most photos, then scribbled in their dates and original locations on post-its left in the margins. Italian renaissance does not equal French renaissance does not equal English renaissance, etc. Otherwise, quite useful.
February 18, 2015
This is the best volume of the 3 I've read. I found interesting parallels between the young men of the chirivari and the Taliban in one section. Also, it was interesting to read how reading as changed over the centuries.
February 25, 2018
Loses one full star for the pictures not being dated. Frustrating. Otherwise excellent.
January 31, 2015
Lettura interrotta temporaneamente (causa vacanze) e ora finalmente terminata! :-)
Onestamente, all'inizio, stavo cominciando a pensare che i casi fossero due: o stavo diventando scema io, il che era anche possibile, o qualcuno, nella fattispecie lo storico Yves Castan o il traduttore Francesco Maiello, non sapeva fare il suo lavoro, perché del primo capitolo, scritto dall'uno e tradotto dall'altro, non ho capito assolutamente nulla. Che questi libri, dietro l'apparenza di una confezione impeccabile, nascondessero qualche magagna (quanto meno nell'edizione italiana), me ne ero resa conto già dai primi due volumi, e me lo ha confermato trovare un fantomatico "Monsieur, principe di" nell'Indice dei nomi (!). Però stavolta mi sono dovuta ricredere, almeno parzialmente, e ho fatto una piacevole lettura. Con questo tipo di opere è inevitabile imbattersi in contributi più o meno interessanti, ben scritti, pertinenti al tema generale: qui, ottimi e chiari quelli sull'influenza delle Riforme protestante e cattolica nella definizione di uno spazio di devozione individuale e privato, di François Lebrun, sulle nuove pratiche di scrittura e lettura individuali, di Roger Chartier, sull'importanza del galateo in società e a tavola, di Jacques Revel e di Jean-Louis Flandrin, sulla diversa considerazione data all'infanzia, di Jacques Gélis, sull'evoluzione della struttura delle abitazioni, di Alain Collomp, sul controllo sulla vita privata degli individui esercitato dalla comunità di villaggio, di Daniel Fabre. Come si intuisce anche da questi nomi di autori citati, la Francia rimane, in pratica, l'unico campo di indagine esaminato, ma stavolta i curatori del volume (P. Ariès e R. Chartier) non solo si rendono perfettamente conto di questo sbilanciamento, ma ne sanno dare anche una giustificazione condivisibile. Bellissimo, al solito, l'apparato iconografico.
3,5/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2010/1...
Onestamente, all'inizio, stavo cominciando a pensare che i casi fossero due: o stavo diventando scema io, il che era anche possibile, o qualcuno, nella fattispecie lo storico Yves Castan o il traduttore Francesco Maiello, non sapeva fare il suo lavoro, perché del primo capitolo, scritto dall'uno e tradotto dall'altro, non ho capito assolutamente nulla. Che questi libri, dietro l'apparenza di una confezione impeccabile, nascondessero qualche magagna (quanto meno nell'edizione italiana), me ne ero resa conto già dai primi due volumi, e me lo ha confermato trovare un fantomatico "Monsieur, principe di" nell'Indice dei nomi (!). Però stavolta mi sono dovuta ricredere, almeno parzialmente, e ho fatto una piacevole lettura. Con questo tipo di opere è inevitabile imbattersi in contributi più o meno interessanti, ben scritti, pertinenti al tema generale: qui, ottimi e chiari quelli sull'influenza delle Riforme protestante e cattolica nella definizione di uno spazio di devozione individuale e privato, di François Lebrun, sulle nuove pratiche di scrittura e lettura individuali, di Roger Chartier, sull'importanza del galateo in società e a tavola, di Jacques Revel e di Jean-Louis Flandrin, sulla diversa considerazione data all'infanzia, di Jacques Gélis, sull'evoluzione della struttura delle abitazioni, di Alain Collomp, sul controllo sulla vita privata degli individui esercitato dalla comunità di villaggio, di Daniel Fabre. Come si intuisce anche da questi nomi di autori citati, la Francia rimane, in pratica, l'unico campo di indagine esaminato, ma stavolta i curatori del volume (P. Ariès e R. Chartier) non solo si rendono perfettamente conto di questo sbilanciamento, ma ne sanno dare anche una giustificazione condivisibile. Bellissimo, al solito, l'apparato iconografico.
3,5/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2010/1...
August 30, 2011
Overwhelming discussions about the shifting western social tides from the dominant value of the community to the dominant value of the individual who is recognizable when we look in a mirror. We begin to see ourselves and our society emerging from a long period in which individual worth was of minor worth to society. This is the period in which the American Revolution finally erupted to legally clear the way for individuals to exist, and the French Revolution hammered the coffin shut on "organic" social organization. The results of the two revolts are interesting to say the least.
March 29, 2018
Another impossible book project. How did ordinary people live, think, and feel in the period between the Reformation and the French Revolution? The chapter that appealed to me the most dealt with reading and writing in several European countries. Two very different activities evidently. The book is otherwise very focused on France with side glances to other countries.
Egentlig et umulig prosjekt. Hvordan levde, tenkte og følte alminnelige vesteuropeere i tida mellom reformasjonen og den franske revolusjonen? Boka er skrevet av historikere med stor vekt på levevilkår, familieliv og tenkesett i Frankrike med noen sideblikk til andre land. Kapitlet som begeistret meg mest handler om lesing og skriving i flere europeiske land, inkludert Sverige og Danmark. Det er høyst ulike aktiviteter viser det seg. Vittig og opplysende skrevet. Så får en heller gjette seg til eller lese andre steder om nordmennenes privatliv i den samme perioden fra 1517 til 1800.
Egentlig et umulig prosjekt. Hvordan levde, tenkte og følte alminnelige vesteuropeere i tida mellom reformasjonen og den franske revolusjonen? Boka er skrevet av historikere med stor vekt på levevilkår, familieliv og tenkesett i Frankrike med noen sideblikk til andre land. Kapitlet som begeistret meg mest handler om lesing og skriving i flere europeiske land, inkludert Sverige og Danmark. Det er høyst ulike aktiviteter viser det seg. Vittig og opplysende skrevet. Så får en heller gjette seg til eller lese andre steder om nordmennenes privatliv i den samme perioden fra 1517 til 1800.
June 7, 2018
the French are brilliant at doing history, though some times french historians tend to base themselves on higher culture a bit too exclusively. Likewise here: very interesting facts about the heights of society, but not too much about everybody else, while all the conclusions, and there are a lot of these, only really apply to those at the apex and not to anybody else
August 2, 2024
Un libro bastante basto y bastante nutrido de información, sin embargo tiende a volverse muy soso.
Es muy complicado seguirle el hilo cuando cambia de ritmo tantas veces y cuando ya hace sub capítulos prácticamente por cualquier cosa y repite temas para ampliarlos.
Pese a todo ello muy interesante y educativo
Es muy complicado seguirle el hilo cuando cambia de ritmo tantas veces y cuando ya hace sub capítulos prácticamente por cualquier cosa y repite temas para ampliarlos.
Pese a todo ello muy interesante y educativo
January 11, 2024
A mix of essays. An interesting one about charivari mocking ceremonies: gangs of young men used to harass people getting married, violators of sexual taboos, & others, often demanding payment to stop. The church & government eventually suppressed this.
January 4, 2025
Mostly focused on France, but with surprising and intriguing details about changes in private life between the medieval and the modern.
April 18, 2025
Not my cup of tea; very true to the title and not exploring into the backgrounds of more known artists like I was hoping.
December 21, 2025
Loved it. Like reading someone’s diary, but from 300 years ago.
January 22, 2025
Though at first the structure of the book a little disoriented me, the easy manner in which the topics of the changes in collective consciousness are addressed in intimate essay format, touching upon a variety of ingenious topics was very interesting and revealed so many details and concepts that i did not know about and had not occured to me, so that it was indeed quite fascinating. This book can also be read non serially.
Want to read
April 16, 2023Passions of the Renaissance (A History of Private Life, #3)
by Philippe Ariès (Editor)
from the library
by Philippe Ariès (Editor)
from the library
Read
December 24, 2010Like the earlier volume, this makes good general reading, with an excellent bibliography.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews