Overview

Full Product Details

9780226020556

Table of Contents

Reviews

At a moment when instinct is considered a self-evident fact of human and nonhuman existence, The Nature and Nurture of Love asks a big question about the role of biology in human affairs. How did science inform the social organization of child rearing in the United States during the early Cold War era? Vicedo s fascinating book shows that very uncertain findings in ethology, psychoanalysis, and primatology were translated into conservative cultural certainties about human development, motherhood, and the kind of nurture that children needed and deserved. Her wonderfully blunt style and refreshing skepticism illuminate the sciences of love. I can think of few other books that bring history as boldly to bear on debates about human nature, work/family balance, and the urgent question of how we care for children as women pursue lives that stretch far beyond maternity. --Ellen Herman, University of Oregon

Angst-ridden parents who fear they may not be adequately meeting their infant's emotional needs will gain valuable perspective from Marga Vicedo's The Nature and Nurture of Love , which shows how recent this preoccupation actually is. This thoroughly original and deeply researched study explains how leading postwar psychologists and biologists reduced mother love and infant attachment to biological instincts that stymied healthy emotional development if thwarted or unmet. Revisiting the field's most influential animal and human studies, Vicedo levels a brilliant and provocative critique of attachment theory--one that will challenge present-day proponents to defend its central claims more rigorously. <br><br><br>--Rebecca Jo Plant, University of California, San Diego

A fascinating and gripping transdisciplinary story and an absolute pleasure to read. --Carla Nappi New Books in American Studies

Author Information

Marga Vicedo is associate professor in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available