Family Life in the Twentieth Century

This volume completes the History of the European Family series, a comprehensive synthesis of what is known about European families across the past five centuries. The profound political and social transformations that occurred from 1914--2000 were without precedent in human history, and their huge impact on European families is the focus of this third volume. It reveals how the changes and processes of the twentieth century altered private lives, the formation of families, the frequency and success of marriages, the relations between husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, and much more. The book raises fundamental questions about whether and to what extent family life in different European societies became more or less similar over the course of the century. Ten leading scholars from Europe and the United States present new essays in which they explore the influences of the economy, the state, the church, the world wars, and other demographic forces on the European family during a period when the nuclear family was threatened as never before.