Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change

Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change

Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change

The Transformation of Life in Casalecchio, Italy, 1861-1921

Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change represents an unprecedented interdisciplinary effort to discover how changes in family life and demographic behavior actually occurred in this crucial period, and how people's lives were affected. The book takes issue with a number of the most influential demographic and sociological theories dealing with the evolution of the Western family and the factors responsible for fertility decline.

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Publisher:
University of Wisconsin Press (with Dennis Hogan)
Published:
ISBN:
0299121941

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Full summary

As in so many other parts of Europe, the northern Italian community of Casalecchio experienced massive social and economic changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Characterized by sharecropping agriculture and large, complex family households, the community faced the effects of industrialization, urbanization, and dramatic political change. Making use of unusually rich archival sources to reconstruct the live of 19,000 people who lived in Casalecchio during this period, Kertzer and Hogan challenge many current generalizations regarding the emergence of modern European society.
 


Winner of the 1990 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for "the best work on Italian history"

International editions

Italian

Il Mulino, 1991