Individuals, Families, and Communities in Europe, 1200–1800
The Urban Foundations of Western Society

A study of the family's function in western society from 1200–1800, first published in 2003.

Katherine A. Lynch (Author)

9780521645416, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 21 August 2003

268 pages, 10 b/w illus. 3 maps 4 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'… timely and engaging … The book is clearly written and highly stimulating.' Robert Woods, Urban Studies

In this interpretation of European family and society, Katherine Lynch examines the family at the centre of the life of 'civil society'. Using a variety of evidence from European towns and cities, she explores how women and men created voluntary associations outside the family - communities, broadly defined - to complement or even substitute for solidarities based on kinship. She shows how demographic, economic, religious, and political features of European urban society encouraged the need for collective organizations for mutual protection, and how men and women acted to fulfil this need. She also emphasises the central place that family issues played in the creation of larger communities, from the 'confessional' communities of the Reformation to the national 'imagined' community of the French Revolution. Based on original research, this is an ambitious integration of the history of the family into the history of public life.

Preface and acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Fundamental features of European urban settings
2. Church, family and bonds of spiritual kinship
3. Charity, poor relief and the family in religious and civic communities
4. Individuals, families and communities in urban Europe of the Protestant and Catholic reformations
5. Constructing an 'Imagined Community': poor relief and the family during the French Revolution
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]