Rousseau's Daughters: Domesticity, Education, and Autonomy in Modern France

In this lively interdisciplinary blend of history, education, and material culture, Jennifer J. Popiel examines ideological and cultural shifts in French child rearing and maternity from pre-Revolutionary France to 1833. She shows how ideals promoted in Rousseau’s educational treatise Emile (1762) anchored women more firmly in private life by emphasizing their critical role in their children’s early education and development. Emile marked the beginning of a widespread shift toward domestic nu…