Abstract
Recent work about the method of family reconstitution and economic history raises serious doubts about the demographic and economic premises that underlie much of the existing scholarship about early American family history. As a result, early American family history—one of the new social history's crowning achievements during the 1960s—is now in disarray. Some scholars see the new microhistorical studies of the colonial family as an effort to sidestep these difficulties by ignoring demographic and materialist perspectives. However, such cultural approaches may well intensify the crisis by challenging the image of the early American family as a loving institution incapable of violent conflict.
Issue Section:
Review Essay
This content is only available as a PDF.
© 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.
2003
You do not currently have access to this content.