Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment Audiobook By Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses cover art

Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

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Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
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About this listen

There is a common misconception that sex, love, and marriage in medieval and early modern Europe followed very specific, inflexible rules and expectations that remained unchanged for centuries. But the boundaries of matrimony, sexuality, and romantic relationships have always been complicated, and the rules surrounding them are forever changing.

Throughout the 10 lectures of Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, you will find that looking closer at marriage and sexuality in this period reveals a vibrant history of flexibility, of questioning and adaptation, and of evolutionary - and sometimes even revolutionary - change. With Professor Jennifer McNabb, you will explore these crucial aspects of the human experience as they were formed and transformed in the centuries that stretched between the Roman adoption of Christianity and the emergence of the Enlightenment. Along with the more traditional aspects of sex and marriage, you will also examine:

  • The Christian church’s complex relationship with sex and celibacy
  • The experience of the unmarried or formerly married in a marriage-driven society
  • Prostitution and commercialized sex
  • The realities vs. the fiction of forbidden love and unrecognized unions
  • The rise of companionate marriage
  • How the Protestant Reformation altered the sexual and matrimonial landscape
  • And more

As you look closely at these and other dimensions of love and sex across a millennium of change and resistance, you will get a more nuanced and honest view of the complexity of our past and how medieval and early modern perspectives on sex, love, and marriage continue to influence the way we think about and experience them today.

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About the Professor

Jennifer McNabb is Professor of History and the head of the Department of History at the University of Northern Iowa. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2003. Professor McNabb has spoken and published widely on social relationships in early modern Europe, especially courtship and marriage. In addition to articles in journals such as the Sixteenth Century Journal and Journal of Women’s History, she has authored material for several textbooks on Western civilization and European history. Professor McNabb has served as president of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association and is a former chair of the program committee of the Midwest Conference on British Studies.

What listeners say about Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

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Loved it

First off i love the author, she makes it interesting, relevant and draws you in so you want to know more. She does such a good job in making you want more i have three other books by her that i also loved.
With todays world and many young moving towards “marriage is just a paper” attitude i think this lecture has even more bearing because it tells us how “legal” marriages came to be and what importance they have which still has its place today.

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what's love got to do with it?

Another fantastic read from professor McNabb! From the early days of the church excoriating it's congregations for being too weak-willed to abstain from physical congress and reluctantly approving of marriage for the sake of procreation only (the church fathers and especially Jerome and Augustin of Hippo), to the courtly romance of the chivalric tradition. The use of marriage and romance to expand dynasties throughout western Europe from the Middle ages to the early modern period. This book is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in western European history, especially if you're interested in the lives of ordinary people during this time. If the people from these times could choose someone from today to speak on their behalf, it would be professor McNabb without question!

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Excellent course!

Entertaining, engrossing, and informative. The lecturer was very good and the class well thought out. Highly recommend. 5 stars.

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very good.

it was interesting to see how marriage was classified and handles at various points in time and the conditions it operated under.

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Love the facts!

If you like the science of fact’s check out this book. It’s a wow and will definitely help you rethink your future

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Interesting

Pretty interesting book about the history of sex. I did not know about alot of these facts.

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The lie buster

I finished this book fast, I could not put it down. You should give it a listen 💡

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An interesting overview

A look at the historical development of attitudes towards sex, love, and marriage in Christian Europe. All subjects that religious authorities were very interested in controlling, and I enjoyed learning how their perspectives changed over time. Also touches on secular views of these subjects - sadly there is less historical evidence on that, compared to the vast quantity of surviving Roman Catholic and Reformation documents on the subject.

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Excellent

This is an amazing deep dive lectures about marriages through the periods and the differences. Would recommend, it was incredibly fascinating

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pretty depressing

Listening to this made me feel like I was living in the present which is still in the dark ages. Really depressing patriarchy with little on love.

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