Family, Gender, and Law in Early Modern France

Suzanne Desan is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Jeffrey Merrick is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Making and Breaking Marriage: An Overview of Old Regime Marriage as a Social PracticeSuzanne Desan2. Marriage Choice and Marital Success: Reasoning About Marriage, Love, and HappinessDena Goodman3. Family Affairs: Wives, Credit, Consumption, and the Law in Old Regime FranceClare Crowston4. Between State and Street: Witnesses and the Family Politics of Litigation in Early Modern FranceJulie Hardwick5. Marital Conflict in Political Context: Langeac vs. Chambonas, 1775Jeffrey Merrick6. Gender, Kin, and Guardianship in Early Modern BurgundyChristopher Corley7. On the Contested Margins of the Family: Bastardy and Legitimation by Royal Rescript in Eighteenth-Century FranceMatthew GerberSuggested ReadingsContributorsIndex

“Family, Gender, and Law in Early Modern France is a very well-conceptualized and extremely coherent volume, offering an excellent introduction to recent trends and new directions in the field of family history in early modern France.”—Michael Breen, Reed College