Tocqueville on the Family

1987 ◽  
Vol 8 (x) ◽  
pp. 127-152
Author(s):  
Reiji Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
American Family ◽  
Principal Characteristics ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
The Family ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Jacksonian America

In the second volume of Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville discussed the influences of democracy upon the family. In this sociological reflection, he praised highly the American family and the American woman. The principal characteristics which Tocqueville found in the family life of Jacksonian America were good morals, marriages always based on love (mercenary or forced marriages were rarely seen as in Europe), the absence of obstacles to intermarriage between classes, children’s independence, young girls’ self-determination, wives’ voluntary subordination to their husbands, and so on.

Democracy's Family Values: Alexis de Tocqueville on Anxiety, Fear and Desire

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Janara
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Family Values ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
The Family ◽  
Democracy In America

Standing interpretations of the family relations depicted in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America project onto his portrait of democracy a strong public-private dichotomy. However, de Tocqueville insists that family life is embedded in the dynamics that shape the broader society and culture. Investigating this claim yields a psychological account of the desires, fears and anxieties that haunt democratic society. These passions foment a paradoxical mix of egalitarianism and hierarchy, liberty and subjugation, within family life and beyond. De Tocqueville's fundamental thesis that democracy boasts healthy and unhealthy potentialities is better understood when the idea of family as a discrete sphere is abandoned.

Democracy and Unfreedom: Revisiting Tocqueville and Beaumont in America

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara M. Benson
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Jacksonian America

This essay reexamines the famous 1831 prison tours of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont. It reads the three texts that emerged from their collective research practice as a trilogy, one conventionally read in different disciplinary homes ( Democracy in America in political science, On the Penitentiary in criminology, and Marie, Or Slavery: A Novel of Jacksonian America in literature). I argue that in marginalizing the trilogy’s important critique of slavery and punishment, scholars have overemphasized the centrality of free institutions and ignored the unfree institutions that also anchor American political life. The article urges scholars in political theory and political science to attend to this formative moment in mass incarceration and carceral democracy.

THE DECADENCE OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY AS VIEWED IN 1884

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-91
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
European Country ◽  
Family Life ◽  
American Family ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Additional Element ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Progressive Deterioration ◽  
The Family ◽  
The One

Almost a century ago editorials such as the one below expressed the fear that the American family was in serious trouble. We do not like to be doleful, but it is impossible to ignore some of the facts that have been presented with the last year or two [1882] by Dr. Goodell, Dr. Nathan Allen, and others. These facts relate to...the decadence of family life among Americans. Dr. Allen, who has been studying this subject for many years, presents the case very directly in an article entitled "The New England Family" (The New Englander). It is asserted that the objects of the institution of the family are three: the propagation of children, the preservation of chastity, mutual help and company. In each of these respects the American family, especially the New England family, shows a marked and progressive deterioration, since one hundred years ago. As regards the propagation of children, it is shown that the average native New England family is very much less productive than formerly.... The birthrate in New England families has been steadily declining until now it is lower than that of any European country except France. One additional element in this, no doubt, is the habit of delaying marriages-a habit made almost necessary by the more expensive style of living which is demanded, and by what some consider the selfishness of young men who prefer not to sacrifice their liberty to the responsibility and expense of domestic life. Another indication of family deterioration is the increase of divorces.

scholarly journals 'So Long, Farewell’

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-133
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Grube
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Maternal Identity ◽  
American Family ◽  
Gone With The Wind ◽  
Academy Awards ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
The Family

The early 1960s created the brewing of social change before the explosion of the cultural revolution of the late 1960s. In this period, Hollywood released its first family movies, Mary Poppins in 1964 and The Sound of Music in 1965, meant to be enjoyed by children and parents alike. These two movies enjoyed a wealth of surprising success, sweeping the academy awards and establishing The Sound of Music as the top grossing film of all time, surpassing America’s beloved Gone With The Wind. Historians and contemporaries alike have questioned and offered answers as to why two movie musicals would capture the attention of the nation with such force. This thesis seeks to argue that Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music addressed fears concerning the breakdown of family life, feminine and maternal identity, questions of child rearing and provided wholesome family entertainment that the American family was seeking, while pioneering as the first films in the family movie movement.

scholarly journals COMMODIFICATION OF VALUES IN AMERICAN POPULAR FAMILY MOVIES IN 1990S

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Siti Harsia ◽  
Ida Rochani Adi
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Family Values ◽  
American Family ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
Ideal Woman ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
The Family ◽  
Child Character ◽  
The 1950S

This thesis investigates the American popular family films from the 1950s to the 2000s by using Interdisciplinary approach. This approach is intended to explore the object of research from the history, sociology, and cultural background. The theory of representation and commodification are used together to examine how the films represent American family life and how the film industry commercializes American family values. By focusing on family roles that include the division of roles between husband and wife, interactions between family members, and the values adopted by children as a result of parenting practice, it was found that the family concept shown in films from the 1950s to the 2000s represented the reality of the dynamics of family life in every decade. Besides, in popular films of the 1990s, 'Hollywood Family Entertainment' commercialized the patriarchal issues contained in the 'traditional family' concept. There is an ideology of 'ideal woman' strictly as a housewife which was commodified through these films. Optimistic value in the family was also commodified through the child character consistently, shown by the emergence of child character who tends to be positive towards the future, focus on goals, strives for success and happiness and free in making choices.

scholarly journals How Cohabitation is Reshaping American Families

Contexts ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
American Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Family ◽  
Unmarried Cohabitation ◽  
Intimate Partnerships ◽  
American Families

Rapid growth in unmarried cohabitation over the past few decades has fundamentally altered American family life. By providing a context for intimate partnerships and childbearing outside marriage, cohabitation challenges our understanding of the family.

scholarly journals Illness, Care, Love and Today’s American Family: A Comparative Study of the Novels “Miss Janie’s Girls and Sula”

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-313
Author(s):  
Dr. Shabbir Ahmad ◽  
Dr. Neelum Almas ◽  
Muhammad Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
American Family ◽  
Need For Care ◽  
The Family ◽  
Deadly Disease

This study examines how the novels Miss Janie’s Girls and Sula discussed the family life, illness, fight against pandemics, and need for care during a time of combatting the disease. This study has more importance in the context of the pandemic Covid-19 situation that laid stress on social distancing while the immediate demand of the patient is taking care of by the family members. This study establishes a link between fighting with a deadly disease and feminism, and for that, it brings a comparative analysis of the issues e.g. illness, care, love, and today’s American family from the 1970s to the 2020s selected fiction. The influence of changed living style on family relations, in contemporary American family life, with an emphasis on family love is underscored in facing the challenge of lethal diseases. However, this article concludes that the family also expands to the adopted children and fostered mothers.

scholarly journals SULA: A PORTRAYALOFBLACKAMERICA.N"WOMA.~ ASHEADOFTHEFANULY

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Ekawati Marhaenny Dukut
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
American Studies ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Black American ◽  
American Family ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Family

In a world of patriarchy, the head of a family is usua/~v the male. However, under certain circumstances, such as the depression era of the 1930s that the Black American family had to face, the mother is forced to become the head of the family. Through a brief look at history, actual~v the function of Black American woman as the key person of upholding the family ties and sustaining thefamity 's livelihood has been carried out ever since the Blacks arrived in America as slaves. 7'hrough one kind of cultural studies approach, i. e. an American studies approach, the article discusses this event through a close analysis of the female characters described in the novel 'Sula '.

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