Marriage in Seventeenth-Century English Political Thought

by Kenneth A. Loparo

This study traces the decline of marriage as a metaphor for political authority, subjection, and tyranny in Seventeenth-century political thought. An image that bound consent and contract with divine right absolutism, and irrevocably connected royal prerogatives with subjects' liberties, its disappearance in the middle decades of the century coincided with the full emergence of patriarchalist and social contract theories. If both these accepted the importance of 'fathers of families', neither would suggest that political government could be comparable to 'marriage'.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Neale Sourna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always interesting to read about every day things and how people of another time and country processed that information and daily standards; especially a country and time that spawned THIS country, and our times. Including how thoughtless and indifferent men have and can be about their mothers, wives and daughters.

Marriage hasn't always been EXACTLY what you thought it was. And it's the basis of home and government, until it wasn't. Or is it?