Yankee Family
The voluminous records of the Pierce and Poor families weave a story that runs from the late eighteenth century until World War I. The extent and qual-ity of their source materials, and their positions as representative middle-class to upper-middle-class New England families, make these subjects of Yankee Family particularly well suited for analyzing processes of continuity and change. McGovern reviews the life-styles of the Pierce and,Poor families both on the frontier and in the Boston area, and focuses on the cross-generational changes in these styles.

The study begins with John Pierce at Harvard in the 1790s and follows through to the first decade of the twen-tieth century. The author shows how the "Yankee" mentality, an outgrowth of New England Puritanism, contributed to the family's rise to success, but con-cludes that by the early twentieth cen-tury the Yankee life-style was ending, a victim of social and economic changes in American society that were rendering it irrelevant.

Until recently historical scholarship on the American family has been static. Apart from long-standing predilections of historians for political history, there were also theoretical and meth-odological problems deterring schol-arship on the American family. But McGovern's approach holds great promise; it is more sensitive than quan-tification studies to the impact of change on a wider range of human expe-riences because it is inevitably more personal. While this type of family his-tory rewards students of social change, it also affords important insights on con-tinuity. It reveals the existence of a family style which adapts to change with a special corpus of family wisdom, al-ways finding a way to exercise its "known" amidst constant flux thus mitigating some of the effects of change.

"1102736792"
Yankee Family
The voluminous records of the Pierce and Poor families weave a story that runs from the late eighteenth century until World War I. The extent and qual-ity of their source materials, and their positions as representative middle-class to upper-middle-class New England families, make these subjects of Yankee Family particularly well suited for analyzing processes of continuity and change. McGovern reviews the life-styles of the Pierce and,Poor families both on the frontier and in the Boston area, and focuses on the cross-generational changes in these styles.

The study begins with John Pierce at Harvard in the 1790s and follows through to the first decade of the twen-tieth century. The author shows how the "Yankee" mentality, an outgrowth of New England Puritanism, contributed to the family's rise to success, but con-cludes that by the early twentieth cen-tury the Yankee life-style was ending, a victim of social and economic changes in American society that were rendering it irrelevant.

Until recently historical scholarship on the American family has been static. Apart from long-standing predilections of historians for political history, there were also theoretical and meth-odological problems deterring schol-arship on the American family. But McGovern's approach holds great promise; it is more sensitive than quan-tification studies to the impact of change on a wider range of human expe-riences because it is inevitably more personal. While this type of family his-tory rewards students of social change, it also affords important insights on con-tinuity. It reveals the existence of a family style which adapts to change with a special corpus of family wisdom, al-ways finding a way to exercise its "known" amidst constant flux thus mitigating some of the effects of change.

180.0 In Stock
Yankee Family

Yankee Family

by James McGovern
Yankee Family

Yankee Family

by James McGovern

Hardcover

$180.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

The voluminous records of the Pierce and Poor families weave a story that runs from the late eighteenth century until World War I. The extent and qual-ity of their source materials, and their positions as representative middle-class to upper-middle-class New England families, make these subjects of Yankee Family particularly well suited for analyzing processes of continuity and change. McGovern reviews the life-styles of the Pierce and,Poor families both on the frontier and in the Boston area, and focuses on the cross-generational changes in these styles.

The study begins with John Pierce at Harvard in the 1790s and follows through to the first decade of the twen-tieth century. The author shows how the "Yankee" mentality, an outgrowth of New England Puritanism, contributed to the family's rise to success, but con-cludes that by the early twentieth cen-tury the Yankee life-style was ending, a victim of social and economic changes in American society that were rendering it irrelevant.

Until recently historical scholarship on the American family has been static. Apart from long-standing predilections of historians for political history, there were also theoretical and meth-odological problems deterring schol-arship on the American family. But McGovern's approach holds great promise; it is more sensitive than quan-tification studies to the impact of change on a wider range of human expe-riences because it is inevitably more personal. While this type of family his-tory rewards students of social change, it also affords important insights on con-tinuity. It reveals the existence of a family style which adapts to change with a special corpus of family wisdom, al-ways finding a way to exercise its "known" amidst constant flux thus mitigating some of the effects of change.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781138540798
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 11/15/2017
Pages: 226
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1: Frontier and Family; 2: A Puritan Family Line,; 3: “The Peaceful Parsonage”; 4: The Pierce Children As Adults; 5: Mary W. (Pierce) Poor: The Advent of a Bride; 6: The Young Marrieds; 7: “What a Foe to Love is Business” 1 The New York Years 1849–1863; 8: Back to Brookline: The Sixties and Seventies; 9: The Apples and Tree; 10: The End of Life; 11: Conclusion: Perspectives on Yankee Family
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews