Lawrence Stone on Family, Sex and Marriage

According to Stone, before 1500, the parents and kin determined the choice of marriage partners. During this period, social and economic interests surpassed the individual wishes of the marriage partners. Especially for the rich, wealthy families used the institution of marriage to forge powerful connections with the aristocracy (Stone 88-89). However, with the increasing dominance of the State between 1500 and 1700, the influence of the kinship network began to decline (Stone 93). Consequently, a shift was made towards the nuclear family, thus giving the father the ultimate authority over his wife and children (Stone 100-101). Within this social transition, Stone also depicts the radical changes in the relationships between husband and wife, parent and children (145). During the Puritanical era, without support from the kinship groups against the authority of the husband, the wife lost

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For example, in addition to his thorough and entertaining description of the rise of affective individualism during the late sixteenth centuries (Stone 164-172), Stone also provides plausible explanations for the trend. Furthermore, he demonstrates clearly the interaction between the political, social, economic and individual forces that led to the transformation of the society. In this case, the growth of a market economy destroyed traditional economic units and ways of earning a living (Stone 173). Consequently, a new wealthy bourgeoisie emerged that focused on personal behavior and secular morality, thus further eroding the religious influence of the period. Because the wealthy bourgeoisie possessed a strong connection with the squirarchy that controlled the government, new ideas about a Bill of Rights and a limited contract state came into being (Stone 174-175). From this brief description, one can see that Stone has provided an in-depth exploration of the complexity of the forces involved in the transformation of society, which ultimately also affected the family. Another indicator of Stone's academic excellence is his qualification of his own statements. After he depicts a particular mode of behavior during the period, he
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Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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