Riddles of Identity in Modern Times

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This final volume of a standard work on private life in Western civilization spans from Greco-Roman times to the present. Initially planned by Phillipe Ariès and Georges Duby, it was first published in France in 1987. Editors Prost and Vincent expanded this English edition to include sections on Italian, German, and American families, enhancing its comprehensiveness. The central theme of this volume is personal identity, explored in contexts similar to previous volumes: in workplaces and cities where private property and activities face state control; in homes and families where even sexual matters are increasingly public; and in intermediary groups like churches or political parties, where personal dramas unfold amid cultural diversity. As highlighted in Duby's foreword to the first volume, the work offers an in-depth analysis of the evolution of personality as both concept and reality in the Western world. Now complete in both French and English, it pays tribute to the Annales approach of examining structural changes over extended periods and honors the late historian Ariès, whose framework influenced Duby and the other editors.