In the past few decades, working with big data and the tools developed in the digital humanities have transformed the ways in which historical research is conducted. The transition from the pen-and-paper scholarship to digital-based research has helped solve a great number of questions or even to overturn certain theories. One of the areas where these advances are most visible is the history of the family, a rich field where demographers, historians, and anthropologists have been collaborating for more than half a century.
This seminar will offer a bird’s-eye view of some of the main issues of family history at a time when the family underwent profound changes and, in turn, contributed to the shaping of society and the state. We will cover such issues as the interactions between family and political activity, the enduring importance of family ties in economic enterprise, and parents’ changing strategies of transmitting well-being to their children. Moreover, we will permanently come into contact with the most recent digital humanities or big data projects that have transformed the history of the family. A heavy emphasis will be laid on working with the various population and family history databases developed during the past two decades in various regions of Europe.
As a result of this seminar, students will be able to identify and reflect on the main debates and topics in family history between 1600 and 1900, and will obtain a grasp of the central approaches towards this institution in social history, historical demography and the digital humanities.
Recommended readings:
David I. Kertzer and Mario Barbagli, The History of the European Family. Vol. I: Family Life in Early Modern Times, 1500 – 1789. Yale University Press, 2001 and Vol. II: Family Life in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1789 – 1913. Yale University Press, 2003.
Peter Laslett, Richard Wall. Household and Family in Past Time. Cambridge University Press, 1972 (Introductory chapter).
Charles Tilly. “Family history, social history, and social change”. Journal of Family History 12 (1-3) 1987: 319-330.
Kristen Nawrotzki and Jack Dougherty. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press, 2013. [accessible online at http://www.digitalculture.org/books/writing-history-in-the-digital-age/]
Richard Wall. “Leaving Home and Living Alone: An Historical Perspective”. Population Studies 43 (1989): 369-389.
Richard Woods. “Dig Montaigne Love His Children? Demography and the Hypothesis of Parental Indifference.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 33/3 (Winter 2003): 421 – 442.
