ABSTRACT

One of the prevailing myths about the American family is that there once existed a harmonious family with three generations living together, and that this "ideal" family broke down under the impact of urbanization and industralization. The essays in this volume challenge this myth and provide dramatic revisions of simplistic notions about change in the American family. Based on detailed research in a variety of sources, including extensive oral history interviews of ordinary people, these essays examine major changes in family life, dispel myths about the past, and offer new directions in research and interpretation. The essays cover a wide spectrum of issues and topics, ranging from the organization of the family and household, to the networks available to children as they grow up, to the role of the family in the process of industralization, to the division of labor in the family along gender lines, and to the relations between the generations in the later years of life. While discussing family relations in the past and revising prevailing notions of social change, these interdisciplinary essays also provide important perspectives on the present.

part One|101 pages

Family and Kinship

chapter 3|25 pages

A Complex Relationship

Family Strategies and the Processes of Economic and Social Change

part Two|129 pages

Studying Lives in Time and Place

chapter 5|23 pages

Aging and Generational Relations

A Historical and Life-Course Perspective

chapter 7|24 pages

The Generation in the Middle

Cohort Comparisons in Assistance to Aging Parents in an American Community

chapter 8|28 pages

Rising Above Life’s Disadvantage

From the Great Depression to War

part Three|65 pages

Comparative Perspectives

chapter 10|26 pages

Between Craft and Industry

The Subjective Reconstruction of the Life Course of Kyoto’s Traditional Weavers

chapter 11|24 pages

The Festival’s Work as Leisure

The Traditional Craftsmen of the Gion Festival

chapter 12|13 pages

Divorce, Chinese Style

part Four|36 pages

Broader Perspectives

chapter 13|16 pages

Family Change and Historical Change

An Uneasy Relationship

chapter 14|18 pages

What Difference Does It Make?