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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|101 pages
Family and Kinship
chapter 3|25 pages
A Complex Relationship
part Two|129 pages
Studying Lives in Time and Place
chapter 7|24 pages
The Generation in the Middle
part Three|65 pages
Comparative Perspectives
chapter 10|26 pages
Between Craft and Industry
part Four|36 pages
Broader Perspectives