Weathering the Storm: Working-Class Families from the Industrial Revolution to the Fertility Decline

Abstract

The industrial revolution, which transformed 19th-century labour, brought about fundamental changes in the lives of working-class families. In this sequel to A Millenium of Family Change, Wally Seccombe examines in detail the ways in which large-scale economic changes shape the microcosm of personal life. Seccombe argues that what we think of as the modern nuclear family only took shape relatively recently; it was not until the time of World War I that the male breadwinner became the norm. He traces the effects on the family of increasingly centralized manufacture, the separation of the workplace from the home neighbourhood and the rise of birth control brought about by urban housing. He also documents how the introduction of compulsory schooling and the rise of birth control contributed to changes in the dynamics of the working-class family, as children were differentiated from adults, and conjugal rights and duties renegotiated. This contribution to the study of family history should find an audience in history, sociology, politics and women's studies departments.