Department of Human & Community Development, University of Illinois

Elizabeth Pleck

 

Education

Ph.D. 1973, Brandeis University, History of American Civilization

M.A. 1969, Brandeis University, History of American Civilization

B.A. 1967, Brandeis University, History

 

Research Interests

The history of cohabitation; the history of U.S. family ritual; family violence; racial and ethnic diversity in the history of American families; the history of fatherhood.

Cohabitation is one of the most rapidly increasing living arrangements in the U.S. I am interested in how and why law, public policy, and popular attitudes toward cohabitation changed between 1960 and 1990. Part of the contemporary “crisis in the family is the decrease in the stigma associated with cohabitation, and its institutionalization as an alternative to marriage (and singlehood). How did this come about? I seek answers in the intersection of public policy and private attitudes, and in the way that discourse about cohabitation intersects with the social hierarchies of race, sexuality, and gender.

In Celebrating the Family, I examined the complexity of defining what a family tradition is, and how that process of definition has intersected with consumer culture and changes in ethnic identity. The book traces the process of change whereby many American festivals and holidays became celebrations of the ideal of the family. The holidays discussed include Christmas, Easter, Chinese New Year, and Passover as well as rituals celebrating births, coming of age, marriage, and death.

In Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding, I analyzed the basis for the appeal of lavish wedding celebrations in contemporary North America as well as the growing appeal of the lavish wedding around the world.

 

Selected Journal Articles and Chapters

Pleck, E. H. (in press). Two dimensions of fatherhood: A history of the good dad/bad dad complex. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley.

Pleck, E.H. (2001). The history of the family photograph. In C. O'Connor (Ed.), Family history and the family photograph. Chicago: Arcadia Press.

Pleck, E. H. (2001). Christmas in the l960s. In R. Horsley & J. Tracey (Eds.), Christmas: The religion of consumer capitalism. Boston: Trinity Press International.

Pleck, E. H. (2001). Kwanzaa: An invented Black Nationalist tradition, 1966-1990. Journal of American Ethnic History, 20, 3-28.

Pleck, E.H. (1999). The history of Thanksgiving as a domestic occasion. Journal of Social History, 32, 774-789.

Pleck, E.H. & Pleck, J.H. (1997). Fatherhood ideals in the United States: Historical dimensions. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development, 3rd ed. (pp. 33-48). New York: John Wiley.

 

Selected Books and Edited Volumes

Otnes, C., & Pleck, E. H. (2003). Cinderella dreams: The allure of the lavish wedding. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Pleck, E. H. (2003). Domestic tyranny: The making of social policy against family violence from colonial times to the present (with a new introduction). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Pleck, E. H. (2000). Celebrating the family: Ritual, consumer culture and ethnicity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Pleck, E. H. (1987). Domestic tyranny: The making of social policy against family violence from colonial times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pleck, E. H. (1979). Black migration and poverty: Boston, 1870-1900. New York: Academic Press.

Pleck, E. H., & Pleck, J. H. (Eds.). (1980). The American man. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Cott, N. F., & Pleck, E. H. (Eds.). (1979). A heritage of her own: Toward a new social history of American women. New York: Simon & Schuster.

 

Courses Taught

HDFS 421: History of American Families

HDFS 595: Family Violence