Daniel Scott Smith

Life Course, Norms, and the Family System of Older Americans in 1900

** Daniel Scott Smith is Associate Director of the Family and Community History Center at the Newberry Library, and a member of the History Department of the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. Synthesis and analysis are dialectically linked in historical research. Drawing upon a range of perspectives-differentiation, normative, family economy, exchange, intellectual, life-cycle, and lifecourse-Hareven has, for example, developed a complicated and realistic picture of the evolution of old age and the family in American history (Hareven, 1976, 1977). If the behavior of families in the past can be understood through a variety of perspectives, the next task involves specifying the relative merits of these various inter-

Differential mortality in the United States before 1900.

This article examines the differentials in mortality that are revealed by the responses to questions about the number of children-ever-born and the number currently-alive provided by a national sample of older women taken from the manuscript census [of the United States] for 1900. Particular attention is given to differential mortality by social status. (EXCERPT)

The Curious History of Theorizing about the History of the Western Nuclear Family

The history of the family lacks a history. Sociologists and historians rarely cite interpretative literature written before the last third of the twentieth century. Curiously, at least for the discipline of history, recent scholars have seemingly regarded older perceptions as relics of a prescientific past. This foray into intellectual history will demonstrate that ignoring the history of this field also distorts it. My case study considers what is widely regarded as the largest revision in thinking about the history of the family—the complete overthrow of what William J. Goode, the sociologist most credited with its rejection, has derisively called (1970: 6) “the classical family of Western nostalgia.” Kertzer and Hogan (1988: 84) have aptly summarized the chief elements of the interpretation overturned by the revisionists: “Until recently, the popular image of Western family history pictured people as living in large extended family units that had multiple functions. With the advent of industrialization, it was thought, this system was transformed into one characterized by small, nuclear family units having more specialized functions.”

Cultural demography: New England deaths and the Puritan perception of risk.

This study examines the perception of the risk of death among New Englanders in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America and compares it with the actual risk of death using the life table concepts developed by demographers. Emphasis is on the relationship between actual and perceived risks of death. The authors conclude that although the actual risk of death changed radically over time as the mortality transition evolved the perceptions of Puritan ministers and others of the individual mortality risk did not. The demographic implication of this failure to understand the significance of this change in mortality is discussed and some modern parallels concerning the gap between perceived and actual risk of death are noted.

Averages for Units and Averages for Individuals Within Units: a Note

berry Library, and a member of the History Department of the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. Recently in this journal Lutz Berkner pointed out the utility of calculating percentages of household types in several ways (Berkner, 1977). The conventional measure divides the number of each type (nuclear, stem, joint) by the total number of households. Alternatively, one may compute the proportion of marital units, children, or total population residing in each type of household. These additional figures provide insight into the relative pervasiveness of the various forms of family structure. Berkner’s contribution illustrates a salutary new trend in the social history-a shift from what is known

Recent Change and the Periodization of American Family History

Periodization is a major element in historical interpretation. The remarkable changes in the American family since World War II are reviewed in conjunction with three principal frameworks—dichotomous, secular trend, and episodic schemes—for organizing the dimension of time in the historiography of the family. How these recent episodes relate to longer-run frameworks is explored. Metaphors or models of change in family history need to be used more consciously and explicitly.

A Higher Quality of Life for Whom? Mouths to Feed and Clothes to Wear in the Families of Late Nineteenth-Century American Workers

Children need to be fed, clothed, and sheltered. Historically, an additional baby usually implied a reduction of consumption by other members of a family, a burden that was not necessarily shared equally. Social historians have ignored the issue of inequality within the family. Using the household budgets of nearly 6,000 American workers surveyed in 1889-1890, this article attempts to remedy that neglect. It analyzes the differential impact of higher fertility, measured by the number of children in the household under age five, on the consumption of husbands, wives, and siblings. In response to higher fertility, the wife rather than the husband sacrificed more. Contemporary opinion demonstrates that clothing expenditures provide a good indicator of the extent of involvement in social life beyond the household. A statistical study of expenditures for the clothes of husbands, wives, and children corroborates this interpretation and suggests that the family consumption economy could be an arena of conflict. Finally, the article explores the meanings of the improving consumption status of wives during the twentieth century.

Early American Historiography and Social Science History

Despite the emergence of social science history, the profession remains organized around the study of periods in the history of societies. Departments of history still structure their curricula mainly along national and temporal lines, and the same principle of socialization thereby defines most academic positions (Darnton, 1980). To judge by the sessicns of the annual meetings of the Social Science History Association (SSHA), those sympathetic with that orientation focus on topics, approaches, and methodologies. Only one association network, that for the study of Asia, mentions a locale in its title, and none specifies a particular time period. This article will examine the findings and implications of social science history for one well-established national/period field, that of early American history. Although members of the SSHA may share certain assumptions, they do not generally identify themselves as social scientific historians. Although smaller in size and more informal in structure, the SSHA is an umbrella organization, similar to the larger and more formal American Historical Association. Demographic and family historians, specialists in the new political history, and students of labor and industrialization coexist rather than interact in the organization. Rather than being committed

The Family and Family Relationships, 1500-1900: England, France, and the United States of America. By Rosemary O'Day. (New York: St. Martin's, 1994. xx, 344 pp. Cloth,

List of Tables - General Editors Preface - Introduction - The World That Slips Through Our Fingers: A Framework for the History of the Family - The Prescriptive Family, c.1450-1700 - The Descriptive Family 1: The Wider Family - The Descriptive Family 2: Co-Relations - A Days Work for a Days Victuals: The Families of the Very Poor in the Nineteenth Century - Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Index