HIST3465 — History of the American Family
Examination of the history of the American family from the colonial period to the present. One focus is demographic and explores changes in family size and structure due to economic change and modernization. Also examined are altered relationships within families, as the nuclear family became more democratic and affectionate, as the position of women within American life changed, as people began to practice different methods of family limitation, and as childhood and adolescence were recognized as distinctive life course phases. Additional topics include the role of class and cultural differences in defining family systems, shifting gender and sexual norms, the rise of unrelated individuals, and the aging of the population, etc.