Readership: Academic historians of early modern France, but it should also be of interest to any historian of the early modern world, including specialists in Atlantic or Mediterranean history. It should be of general interest to legal historians; historians of gender, the family, and sexuality; and historians of politics and state development.
Matthew Gerber, Assistant Professor of History, University of Colorado at Boulder
Assistant Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder
Preface A Note on the Text Introduction: Illegitimacy and the Political History of the Family Part I: Stigmatizing the Bastard Chapter One: Bastardy in Sixteenth-Century French Legal Doctrine and Practice Chapter Two: Jurisprudential Reform of Illegitimacy in Seventeenth-Century France Chapter Three: Royal Bastardy & Dynastic Crisis Part II: Destigmatizing the Natural Child Chapter Four: State Expansion, Social Practice, and the Quandaries of Legal Unification Chapter Five: Redefining Social Interest: The Eighteenth-Century Foundling Crisis Chapter Six: Illegitimacy and Legal Change in the French Enlightenment Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
