Flesh and Spirit

According to Steven Ozment, "the more deeply the family life of the past is probed, the more 'modern' the pre-industrial family is discovered to have been and the more 'traditional' the modern family appears to be." In Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany, Ozment illustrates this remarkably stable history by viewing both the 16th-century family and the larger world around it through the eyes of individual household members. Ozment's five chapters illuminate the life cycle of the family from its origins in courtship and marriage to the sending forth of a new adult generation. Each of the five families--one clerical and four merchant--document the inner life of the urban family during at least one stage of the cycle. All of the featured families are well-to-do citizens of Nürnberg, one of Europe's great merchant and intellectual cities of the time. A professor of history at Harvard University, Ozment firmly commands his subject matter and convincingly weaves familial history with the social, economic, political, religious, and cultural history of the times. Although his detailed historical excursions frequently interrupt the flow of the personal narrative, the context they provide enhances the reader's understanding of both personal and societal histories. For example, his discussion of courtship and marriage encompasses high-society gossip, the coronation of a new emperor, contemporary response to the Protestant Reformation, as well as attitudes