James and John Stuart Mill1975

The story of James and John Stuart Mill is one of the great dramas of the 19th century. In the bitter yet loving struggle of this extraordinarily influential father and son, we can see the genesis of the revolution of Liberal ideas--about love, sex and women, wealth and work, authority and rebellion--which ushered in the modern age. In this work, the result of more than a decade of research and reflection, psychohistorian Bruce Mazlish reveals the self-made utilitarian philosopher who, in the age's most celebrated educational experiment, tried to shape his son in his own image (and induced one of the age's best-documented nervous breakdowns); the stern proponent of birth control who fathered nine children; and the sexually ambivalent son who "lived" with another man's wife for almost twenty years. Then there is the strange story of the two Harriers--the unmentioned wife and mother, and the "other Harriet," the adored "mistress" and eventual wife of John--and of how each Harriet played a different role in making John into the century's leading male champion of women's rights.--From publisher description.