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Seminar 12

Seminar 12: Fatherhood The lack of attention fatherhood has received in historical discourse, perhaps reflects contemporary attitudes. Fatherhood was not viewed as a shared male profession, passed down through the generations, in the same way as motherhood. Unlike working-class women, who enjoyed access to comprehensive support and advice networks among kin, friends and the community fathers do not seem to have had such peer support. Nonetheless, this does not mean individual fathers were not engaged in the care of their children. In this seminar we will investigate how attitudes towards and experiences of fathers were changing since 1860, and what continuities have remained. Seminar/Essay Questions:
  1. How have ideals of fatherhood been changing over the period 1860-2000?
  2. Have men become more domesticated?
  3. Are fathers still viewed as being providers for their families?
  4. In what ways has it been argued that children need fathers?
Seminar Reading: J. Branna and A. Nilsen, ‘From Fatherhood to Fathering: Transmission and Change Among British Fathers in Four-generation Families’ Sociology 40 (2006) 335-352. T. Fisher, ‘Fatherhood and the British Fathercraft Movement, 1919-39’ Gender and History 17 (2005), 441-462. M. Francis, ‘The Domestication of the Male? Recent Research on Nineteenth and Twentieth-century British Masculinity’ The Historical Journal 45 (2002) 637-652. E. Gordon and G. Nair, ‘Domestic Fathers and the Victorian Parental Role’ Women’s History Review 15 (2006) 551-559. A.J. Hammerton, ‘Pooterism or Partnership?: Marriage and Masculine Identity in the Lower Middle Class, 1870-1920’ Journal of British Studies 38 (1999) 291-321.Additional Reading: J. R. Ackerley, My Father and Myself (1968). R. G. Andry, Delinquency and Parental Pathology: A Study in Forensic and Clinical Psychology (1971). J. Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain 1890-1960 (1994). J. Bourke, Dismembering the Male: Men’s Bodies, Britain and the Great War (1996). T.L. Broughton and H. Rogers, Gender and Fatherhood in the Nineteenth Century (2007). L. Burghes, L. Clarke and N. Cronin, Fathers and Fatherhood in Britain (1997). M. Collins, ‘Pride and Prejudice: West Indian Men in Mid-C20 Britain’ Journal of British Studies (2001). S. Coltrane and R.D. Parke, Reinventing Fatherhood: Toward an Historical Understanding of Continuity and Change in Men’s Family Lives (1998). R. Crompton, Restructuring Gender Relations and Employment: The Decline of the Male Breadwinner (1999). L.A. Hall, Hidden Anxieties: Male Sexuality, 1900-1950 (1991). S. Horrell & D. Oxley, ‘Crust or Crumb? Intrahousehold Resource Allocation and Male Breadwinning in Late Victorian Britain’ Economic History Review 52 (1999) S. Humphries and P. Gordon, The Experience of Parenthood in Britain, 1900-1950 (1993). J.R. Gillis, ‘Marginalization of fatherhood in Western countries’ Childhood 7 (2000) 225-238. S. Koven, ‘Remembering and Dismemberment: Crippled Children, Wounded Soldiers, and the Great War in Great Britain’ American Historical Review 99 (1994) J. Lewis-Stempel, Fatherhood: An Anthology (2002). L. McKee and M. O’Brien (eds.), The Father Figure (1982). C. Nelson, Invisible Men: Fatherhood in Victorian Periodicals, 1850-1910 (1995). J.A. Mangan and J. Walvin, Manliness and Morality: Middle Class Masculinity in Britain and America, 1800-1940 (1987). W. Marsiglio, Fatherhood: Contemporary Theory, Research and Social Policy (1995). F. Mort, Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities and Social Space in Late Twentieth-Century Britain (1996) D. Newsome, Godliness and Manliness (1961). R. Roberts, The Classic Slum, Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century (1971). M. Roper and J. Tosh, (eds.), Manful Assertions (1991). C. Smart, ‘The Ethic of Justice Strikes Back: Changing Narratives of Fatherhood’ in A Diduck, and K O’Donovan (eds), Feminist Perspectives in Family Law (2006). J. Tosh, A Man’s Place, Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England (1999).