ABSTRACT
Lone parenthood has become an important issue following the dramatic rise in the number of lone parent families over the last 30 years or so. Chapter 1 described the patterns of lone parenthood in Britain today. This chapter takes a broad historical perspective on lone parenthood and assesses the nature of the trends in lone parenthood since early modern times. This shows us that lone parenthood has been relatively common throughout the last few centuries. It only appears to be a new phenomenon because of the unusual predominance of the nuclear family in the 1950s. One aspect of lone parenthood is, however, fairly unique historically: the number of single women having babies without a partner.
