A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Ritual, and the Quest for Family Values

by John R. Gillis

Book Overview

Our whole society may be obsessed with "family values," but as John Gillis points out in this entertaining and eye-opening book, most of our images of "home sweet home" are of very recent vintage. A... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465054145
• ISBN13: 9780465054145
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Helpful book

This book really helped me compare the ideal family today to the ways families were centuries ago. There is a lot of abstract talk about family and religion, but there are also hard facts in this book. Quite interesting!

Brilliant synthesis.

This thoughtful and orginal book is well written and fascinating. It incorporates a wide historiography into a brief and cogent synthesis while making its main points. Whether you are a scholar of the history of the family, a student writing a research paper or just someone interested in interogating your own family myths, this book would be very useful.

Social construction of family images

I really enjoyed this book by Gillis. I particulary found the idea of, the family we live by versus the family we live with, interesting. I used this book to write a research paper on the social construction of family photographs. Are the images the photograph imply real? Is it an image the family has constructed on purpose? Gillis has made a lot of intersting points in this book and everyone should read it.