Domestic Tyranny
The Making of American Social Policy Against Family Violence from Colonial Times to the Present

Chronicles the rise and demise of legal, feminist, and medical campaigns against domestic violence, based on research into court records, newspaper accounts, and autobiographies. This book argues that the most consistent barrier to reform has been the Family Ideal - ideas about family privacy, conjugal and parental rights, and family stability.

Elizabeth Pleck's "Domestic Tyranny" chronicles the rise and demise of legal, political, and medical campaigns against domestic violence from colonial times to the present. Based on in-depth research into court records, newspaper accounts, and autobiographies, this book argues that the single most consistent barrier to reform against domestic violence has been the Family Ideal - that is, ideas about family privacy, conjugal and parental rights, and family stability. This edition features a new introduction surveying the multinational and cultural themes now present in recent historical writing about family violence.