Heroes Of Their Own Lives

This is a history of family violence from the point of view of its victims. Covering child abuse, child neglect, wife-beating and incest throughout the period 1880-1960, it is based on a new source for historians - the case records of social work agencies. From these, Linda Gordon has constructed a narrative of family violence itself - how it occurred, how family members reacted to it and how the agencies responded. She argues that, family violence is a problem inseparable from the family norms of a whole society or from the overall political conflicts in that society. It is a changing historical and cultural issue, not a biological or sociobiological universal. Her conclusions shatter many long-held assumptions about American social history, class and family structure and have implications for us all. She puts contemporary family violence into a new perspective, drawing out the ways in which wife-beating and child abuse must be seen as issues of power and domination, and holding up a mirror to present social policy.