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Slight rant on Lawrence Stone...


 Posted by Helen on March 18, 1998 at 09:53:46:


In response to Re: Caroline's Stats, written by Cassia on March 17, 1998 at 15:11:35


To L and T index ] I mentioned a book called The Road to Divorce:  England 1530-1987 by Lawrence Stone.  It is not only an excellant source on divorce but also marriage and less formal relationships.  It was published by Oxford University Press, 1990 both UK and NY.  Sorry I don't have the ISBN.
 
... from my encounters with him in the Renaissance. He's the author most literary critics get their background from, but most historians mention him with scorn... I get the impression from them that his work is a little too much geared to supporting his thesis, and it is possible to take exception to his conclusions. What makes him so readable - the anecdotes and startling stories - is often what they quarrel with, because his emphasis on the risque and abnormal means that you don't pick up on the reality of large numbers of conforming "normal" people over history... Certainly his opinions about what goes on after the Reformation have been challenged - I don't know so much about Regency historians' views, though. But I bask in the approval of historians every time I tell them that I get my social history from other sources :-) (This is not to denigrate him completely - he's a good read and does give lots of interesting stories about people's lives. Just don't think he gives the whole story).
I'm fascinated to hear you say that most people in the C18th weren't married: they may have married late, but it was my impression that women, especially, who were without a husband were very much stigmatized socially, and those who had children outside wedlock were the subject of community outrage. This would imply that the norm was for more people to get married than not. Could you please expand on your comments? (in reformation England, there was actually a lot of pressure on women to be married, and no real role for single women in society, but that's another story)
Helen
 





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