The Politics of Domestic Authority in Britain since 1800

This collection of essays explores the broad range of influences which have shaped the distribution of authority within British homes and families  - religion, commercial advertising, governments, welfare professionals, medical experts, psychologists and the law.

Introduction: The Politics of Domestic Authority in Britain since 1800; B.Griffin , L.Delap & A.Wills PART I: VIOLENCE AND THE LAW ''I am Master Here'': Illegitimacy, Masculinity, and Violence in Victorian England; G.Frost ''...the Instrument of an Animal Function'': Marital Rape and Sexual Cruelty in the Divorce Court, 1858-1908; G.Savage PART II: POVERTY AND THE STATE Irish Orphans and the Politics of Domestic Authority; A.Clark Fatherhood and Family Shame: Masculinity, Welfare and the Workhouse in Late Nineteenth Century England; M.Doolittle PART III: DOMESTICITY ''Tiresome Trips Downstairs'': Middle-Class Domestic Space and Family Relationships in England, 1850-1910; J.Hamlett Love and Authority in Mid Twentieth-Century Marriages: Sharing and Caring; S.Szreter & K.Fisher ''A Paradise on Earth, a Foretaste of Heaven'': English Catholic Understandings of Domesticity and Marriage, 1945-65; A.Harris PART IV: DOMESTIC SERVICE Domestic Servants as Poachers of Print: Reading, Authority and Resistance in Late Victorian Britain; M.Beetham Authority, Dependence and Power in Accounts of Twentieth Century Domestic Service; J.Giles PART V: PARENTING AND CHILDHOOD Childcare and Neglect: a Comparative Local Study of Late Nineteenth-Century Parental Authority; S.Pooley Godfathering: The Politics of Victorian Family Relations; V.Sanders ''Beating Children is Wrong'': Domestic life, Psychological Thinking and the Permissive Turn; D.Thom