Title: Family secrets : living with shame from the Victorians to the present day /
Authors: Cohen, Deborah, 1968-
Publisher: Viking,
Year: 2013
Subjects: Family secrets Great Britain.; Families Great Britain History; Families Great Britain History; Family history; Privacy; Illegitimacy history; Homosexuality history; Disabled Persons history
Abstract: 'Family Secrets' offers a sweeping account of what families hid in the past, and why. Both a story of keeping secrets and how they were revealed, it journeys from the frontier of empire and the families of British adventurers to the wood-panelled chambers of the divorce court, where a family's disgrace was dissected for public view.
Contents: Introduction -- Part one: Telling secrets (1. Nabob's secrets ; 2. Revelation in the Divorce Court) -- Part two: Shame and guilt, nature and nurture (3. Children who disappeared ; 4. Other people's bastards ; 5. Bachelor uncles) -- Part three: Secret no more? (6. Talking it out ; 7. Repressive family) -- Epilogue: Genealogy and confessonal culture.