Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change

Book excerpt: 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. 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.