{"product_id":"every-mans-home-a-castle-parental-rights-and-the-makings-of-modern-conservatism-1","title":"Every Man's Home a Castle: Parental Rights and the Makings of Modern Conservatism","description":"\u003cp\u003eby Julia Bowes\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinceton University Press\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4\/21\/2026, hardcover\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSKU: 9780691276861\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe emergence of parental rights as a conservative movement spurred by the presumed right of white men to govern their homes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Parental rights\" is a rallying cry for today's American conservatives, signaling opposition to mandatory vaccination and \"woke\" public school curricula. In \u003ci\u003eEvery Man's Home a Castle\u003c\/i\u003e, Julia Bowes traces the origins of the modern parental rights movement to the nineteenth century, when the introduction of compulsory schooling laws, child labor regulations, and vaccine requirements provoked a resistance rooted in the presumed right of white men to govern their homes. A wide-ranging coalition--including Irish Catholic immigrants in Illinois, Mormon enclaves in Utah, and Protestant clergy in Virginia--believed that the state had usurped the \"natural rights\" of parents and \"invaded the home.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBowes shows how, by the turn of the century, those disparate voices had coalesced into national conservative movements. Anti-vaccinationists, alternative medical practitioners, and parents who opposed compulsory school medical exams joined forces to form the National League for Medical Freedom. Deciding a case brought by conservative Catholic lawyers, the Supreme Court declared parental rights a \"fundamental liberty\" protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. And the Sentinels of the Republic, a conservative citizen's lobby, mobilized a campaign to defeat the proposed federal Child Labor Amendment, bringing together pro-family and free-market politics with far-reaching consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eExploring the emergence of parental rights as an antistatist ideology through legal cases, legislative debates, and political movements, Bowes argues that the expansion of state power over children provoked such fierce opposition because the paternal rights of white men--considered the \"rights-bearing\" individuals of American democracy--were widely viewed as the mark and measure of their independence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"With prodigious research and lucid prose, Julia Bowes powerfully reframes the history of gender politics and the state in modern America. Revelatory and timely.\"-- Michael Willrich, author of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/american-anarchy-the-epic-struggle-between-immigrant-radicals-and-the-us-government-at-the-dawn-of-the-twentieth-century\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Anarchy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eEvery Man's Home a Castle\u003c\/i\u003e is an indispensable account of how traditional patriarchal family authority became foundational to U.S. right-wing politics in the twentieth century. The book's rich narrative, filled with nuanced treatments of individual conservatives and their legal battles, offers a significant scholarly contribution that is also accessible to general readers.\"-- Glenda Elizbeth Gilmore, Yale University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"If you want to understand why issues of gender and the family are so central to modern conservatism, read \u003ci\u003eEvery Man's Home a Castle. \u003c\/i\u003eIn elegant prose that combines insights from women's history, the history of childhood, and the history of the state, Bowes shows how debates over the state regulation of childhood at the turn of the twentieth century gave rise to a coalition of antistatist organizations committed to combatting the erosion of the patriarchal family.\"-- Susan J. Pearson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Birth Certificate: An American History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJulia Bowes\u003c\/b\u003e is a lecturer in gender history at the University of Melbourne.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Burning Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52202332782875,"sku":"Every Man's Home a Castle","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0466\/5121\/files\/9780691276861.jpg?v=1778611249","url":"https:\/\/burningbooks.com\/products\/every-mans-home-a-castle-parental-rights-and-the-makings-of-modern-conservatism-1","provider":"Burning Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}