Applying Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined communities" to historical understandings of family life and marriage, this seminar investigates the multiple ways in which modern Europeans have imagined family relationships, spaces, and rituals of marriage. The course examines the cultural creation and reworking of the nuclear family by a diverse range of historical actors within an increasingly global context. How did individuals invent shared pasts that legitimized non-traditional concepts of marriage and the family? Topics include Victorian, socialist and fascist families, the modification of marriage, and challenges to family structures posed by person of alternate sexual, immigrant, and gendered identities. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.