Birth control in nineteenth-century England

by the Group a recognizable pattern of the pre-industrial western European family can be detected. Mr. Laslett's classic paper on the villages ofClayworth and Cogenhoe, where this was first revealed, is here, as is one on long-term trends in bastardy. There are others on parental deprivation, the history of aging and the aged, age of sexual maturity in Europe since the Middle Ages, and the household and family on U.S. slave plantations. Although these articles deal entirely with people, the individuals do not appear through the statistics, and the conclusions are average and impersonal. Nevertheless, this building material will no doubt be fleshed out as historical sociology develops, and in the meantime it should, in addition, be, as Mr. Laslett maintains, useful in the tackling of present-day population problems.