Thicker than Water: Siblings and their Relations, 1780-1920

Thicker than Water is a pioneering study of sibling relationships from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth. The particular focus of the book is on Britain and its middle classes, who were at its core, and the role of family networks created through sibling relationships. Leanore Davidoff examines what we know about the relationships of brothers and sisters at this time, before delving deeper, looking at their uses and meaning for British middle class families, how they operated within the economic, social, cultural, and religious constraints of their place and time, and how they changed as families became smaller from the end of the nineteenth century onwards.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: Exploring Kin and their Kind 1: Kin and Family: Expert Opinions and Popular Views 2: Finding Siblings Part II: The Lattice of Kinship: A Historical Case Study 3: The People and the Setting 4: The 'Long Family' and Its Decline 5: A Like Unlike: Siblings in Childhood and Youth 6: A Dance of Intimacy and Separation: Siblings in Adulthood 7: Forgotten Figures: Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews, and Cousins Part III: Life's Longest Relationship: Essays on Sibling Themes 8: Sibling Intimacy and the Question of Incest 9: The Rise and Fall of Close Marriage 10: Gender, Age, and Authority: The case of Anne, William Ewart, and Helen Gladstone 11: Sibling Silences: The Freud Family 12: Sibling Loss Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Leonore Davidoff is a Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. She has held visiting professorships and fellowships in the US, Australia, Sweden, and several other European countries. Her main area of research is the relationship between the family and economic organization in the period of nascent capitalist development from around 1780 to 1920. She has also pioneered the history of gender relations and in 1987 she became Founding Editor of Gender and History.

Review :
`Review from previous edition The ideas of sisterhoods and brotherhoods are not new; however, these have seldom involved actual sibling relationships. In this fascinating volume about family relationships in Britain and Europe during a 140-year time span, Davidoff (sociology, Univ. of Essex, UK) examines those consanguineal relations so often passed over by historians.' S. J. Zuber-Chall, CHOICE `A fascinating study of the networks that large, middle-class, professional families established in the long 19th century.' Auriol Stevens, Times Higher Education Supplement `Historians and general readers alike will relish this book.' Jane Hamlett, History Today `An intriguing read.' Who Do You Think You Are? `A compelling and pathbreaking exploration of the neglected subject of siblingship. Hugely illuminating, informed by profound and broad scholarship, and also wonderfully readable, it is a work that will be of interest to historians and social scientists of all persuasions.' Janet Carsten, University of Edinburgh `Davidoff succeeds in demonstrating both the strangeness of the past and its relevance to the contemporary world where in the absence of a range of siblings young people begin to think of their friends as part of their family.' Hugh Cunningham, Journal of Social History