Early modern rulers believed that the more subjects over whom they ruled, the more powerful they would be. In 1666, France's Louis XIV and his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert put this axiom into effect, instituting policies designed to encourage marriage and very large families. Their Edict on Marriage promised lucrative rewards to French men of all social statuses who married before age twenty-one or fathered ten or more living, legitimate children. So began a 150-year experiment in governing the reproductive process, the largest populationist initiative since the Roman Empire.
Conceiving the Old Regime traces the consequences of premodern pronatalism for the women, men, and government officials tasked with procreating the abundant supply of soldiers, workers, and taxpayers deemed essential for France's glory. While everyone knew-in a practical rather than a scientific sense-how babies were made, the notion that humans should exercise control over reproduction remained deeply controversial in a Catholic nation.
Drawing on a wealth of archival sources, Leslie Tuttle shows how royal bureaucrats mobilized the limited power of the premodern state in an attempt to shape procreation in the king's interest. By the late eighteenth century, marriage, reproduction, and family size came to be hot-button political issues, inspiring debates that contributed to the character of the modern French nation.
Conceiving the Old Regime reveals the deep historical roots of France's perennial concern with population, and connects the intimate lives of men and women to the public world of power and the state.

This monograph examines the influence of ideational and socio-economic factors on Japanese marriage and fertility behaviour. It also investigates the historical change in attitudes toward partnership and family in Japan, which, if current trends continue, can lead to population shrinkage and an asymmetrical age structure. The author first details the differences between ideational and economic approaches. He examines these two behavioural models from a viewpoint of rational choice theory, which he then follows with a discussion on the influence of institutional contexts on matrimony and childbirth. Next, the book considers salient features of Japanese marriage behaviour, including the relation between these patterns and changes in society and the influence of marriage on attitudes toward partnership and family relations. Coverage then goes on to explore the influence of ideational factors on fertility and analyse the impact of childbirth on couples' attitudes. The author also investigates attitudinal changes between generations in Japan. He provides a theoretical review on the relation between socio-economic development and value-orientation as well as looks at the difference in attitudes from a viewpoint of cohorts and periods. Overall, the book presents an authoritative, theoretical and empirical analysis using data from panel and repeated cross-sectional surveys. Throughout, the author clearly identifies the sources of his data as well as the methods used in his analysis.

Written lucidly and simply to serve as an introduction to the study of the African continent from a human population perspective, this book demonstrates important factors in the ebb and flow of group size and structure using the example of the fastest growing region in the world. From a total original population of less than a quarter million in prehistoric times to the present count of 642 million people in 1990, Africa is now demonstrating an annual growth rate of 3.0%, the highest on the planet. While the rest of the world's population is expected to increase by 60%, Africa's is expected to increase by 100%, doubling by the year 2025 to a projected total of 1.6 billion people. The major factor creating the high growth rate is the drop in death rates while the fertility rates remain high. Stress on the population has been related to urbanization which has increased since African countries attained independence in the 1960s. Employment opportunities in cities are inadequate and slum conditions have appeared around most major cities. Since agriculture remains the major industry and occupation, rural development policies are seen to hold the most promise for stemming urban migration and reducing famine and poverty.

This book addresses major population and development issues: fertility and reproductive health, migrations, gender, education, poverty and inequalities. To that aim it revisits and considerably enlarges Kingsley Davis' 1963 theory of change and response, using interdisciplinary methodologies. On the basis of four decades of field research (1985-2015), it questions the rationality of the actors, how culture shapes socio-demographic behaviours, in a context of modernity and globalisation. More specifically, it casts new light on the interactions of individuals, families, networks and local communities with the State and its population policy.

The 16th volume in a series on advances in stratification research. Topics addressed include: the changing international context of social stratification; race, immigration and life chances; and the distinctiveness of independent business as a locus of social stratification.

Why did Europe experience industrialisation and modern economic growth before China, India or Japan? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Economic History and one that has provoked intense debate. The main concern of this book is to determine when the gap in living standards between the East and the West emerged. The established view, dating back to Adam Smith, is that the gap emerged long before the Industrial Revolution, perhaps thousands of years ago. While this view has been called into question - and many of the explanations for it greatly undermined - the issue demands much more empirical research than has yet been undertaken. How did the standard of living in Europe and Asia compare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? The present book proposes an answer by considering evidence of three sorts. The first is economic, focusing on income, food production, wages, and prices. The second is demographic, comparing heights, life expectancy and other demographic indicators. The third combines the economic and demographic by investigating the demographic vulnerability to short-term economic stress. The contributions show the highly complex and diverse pattern of the standard of living in the pre-industrial period. The general picture emerging is not one of a great divergence between East and West, but instead one of considerable similarities. These similarities not only pertain to economic aspects of standard of living but also to demography and the sensitivity to economic fluctuations. In addition to these similarities, there were also pronounced regional differences within the East and within the West - regional differences that in many cases were larger than the average differences between Europe and Asia. This clearly highlights the importance of analysing several dimensions of the standard of living, as well as the danger of neglecting regional, social, and household specific differences when assessing the level of well-being in the past.

This volume documents how families, communities and some groups (single men, young 'scarce' women, parents) adapt and adjust to recent demographic shifts in China and India. It discusses how demographic change interacts with other processes of change, including changes with respect to economic development and globalization, gender, class, caste, families, migration and work. The chapters offer micro-level analyses contextualized in larger processes of change and push further existing understandings of the consequences of the demographic imbalance between men and women in China and/or India, particularly from a gender perspective. As such this book will be of interest to scholars and students in population studies, sociology, international development, gender studies, and Asian studies.

Internal migration serves as one of the key contributing factors to population change involving not only change in the numbers of people, but also a change in composition and structure of local populations. Technologies for Migration and Population Analysis: Spatial Interaction Data Applications addresses the technical and data-related side of studying population flows and provides a selection of substantive case studies and applications to exemplify research currently being carried out. With expert international contributors currently working in the field, this authoritative book allows readers to better understand interaction data and ways knowledge of population flows can be put to use.

A step-by-step guide to genealogical research for students of British American descent or those interested in British Americans.

"What do you think is meant by the term 'post-racial' and how far do you think we've come, as a country, toward achieving it?" Helen Fox, a white teacher and scholar, asked variations of this question to 87 high school and college students, educators, administrators, community organizers, international visitors, and tribal leaders across the country. Their stories reveal how far we are from a "post-racial" ideal - even in the most liberal of communities. Despite her long experience as an anti-racist educator, Fox was surprised to learn how deeply the lives of people of color continue to be shaped by race, and how hard they have to work to ignore or overcome assumptions, remarks, exclusion, and at times, blatant hostility from whites. The kinds of racism they experience depend on their gender, their religion, their geographical location, their skin tone, their forms of speech and expression, their socioeconomic class, their aspirations, their determination to be outspoken or stoic, the kinds and amount of contact they choose to have (or can't escape having) with whites, and of course, their ascribed race. Despite our nation's "post-racial" climate, racialized assumptions, beliefs, and denials affect everything, from the reach of the national media down to the smallest community: the street where one lives, the friends one attempts to make, the social club, the study group, the classroom. As an art educator remarked, "The 'post-racial' reminds me of the post-modern - the fracturing of things. It's not like our society has finally come together - unless we've come together as a fractured society and we're feeling the prickliness of the broken shards."

When Tom Gosset's Race: The History of an Idea in America appeared more than a generation ago, it explored the impact of race theory on literature in a way that anticipated the entire current scholarly discourse on the subject. Though it has gone out of print, it has never been rendered obsolete. Its reprinting is a boon to younger scholars in particular who are unfamiliar with its rich presentation of fact and its clear, efficient analysis, from which so much later theorizing has developed. With a new afterword by and about the author, and an introduction by series editors Arnold Rampersad and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, this edition should find a wide readership among young scholars and students working in African-American, literary, and cultural studies.

The core of the research reported in this study was a survey of men and women 55 years and older sampled from a comprehensive list of residents. The authors asked questions about social networks, control over household assets, household composition, life satisfaction, and subjective health, among other things. The social network questions had been used in an earlier study done in Kentucky. Nearly everything else had been developed for the Delhi study. The findings were similar to those in the earlier study: the size of people's networks does not decline materially until they are older (80 plus). Age itself did not seem that important, but health was crucial. Persons who reported they were healthy had larger networks.

As one might expect, joint family life has great impact on the nature of social life among older people. This has to do with the big difference in the situation of men and women in India. In addition to being patrilineal kin groups, joint families are dominated by male economic interests. The males as a collective group inherit property. Women have much less control of household assets. This ethnographic fact appeared very clearly in the answers to questions about participation in household decision making. High involvement in decisions, which the authors construed as a measure of power, spilled over into other aspects of the social aging process. Persons who were powerful in their households tended to have large networks, better subjective health, and much higher life satisfaction. They also tended to be men. The women tended to have small networks, low life satisfaction, lower subjective health, and less power. These differences between men and women were all substantial and highly significant. Gender is an extraordinarily important factor in the outcomes of social aging processes in India.

As economic and demographic conditions change, and technology advances, world leaders are becoming increasingly concerned with the future of health care. This comprehensive volume brings together North American and European experts in demographics, public administration, management, and health sciences to examine the challenges confronting health care personnel and systems in the industrialized countries. Following an overview of the general problems and methods of health care planning, contributors discuss such crucial topics as changes in the health status of populations; the impact of an aging population on health care systems; the prospects for reorganizing health care systems; the effects of new technology and drugs on health care; and the future of health care financing.

Garrett Hardin, one of the leading thinkers on the problem of overpopulation, addresses the arguments of economists about continued 'sustainable growth'. He discusses issues that are frequently avoided in most short-term considerations of population levels. This book builds upon the success of Hardin's earlier book, Living Within Limits, and seeks to lay out the practical steps that humankind must take now to ensure the long-term survival of civilization.

This new volume maps the complex interplay of demographic and socioeconomic changes in the United States, where rapid aging and ethnic diversification are merely the most salient of the many issues with major long-term implications. Drawing on The United States Census Bureau's post-2010 detailed projections, as well as a wealth of data distilled from authoritative sources, the authors tackle many of the urgent policy questions raised by America's changing population. The book explores the ways economic markets are adapting to an older and more diverse customer base, how the projected demographic change will impact public service demand, the growing economic disparities between asset-rich baby boomers and youth struggling for economic security, and how the projected demographic patterns will change the fiscal, economic, education, health, and housing sectors and alter the social structures and processes impacting American households and the diverse array of America's future population. A thorough survey of major demographic patterns in the USA up to 2050 is followed by an assessment of how these will affect socioeconomic, public service, fiscal, economic, and social structures and mechanisms, down to the size and composition of households. The analysis then considers possible variations of outcome predicated on alternative dynamic patterns between demographics and socioeconomics. Cutting through the politics and communal anxieties with hard, cutting-edge data, this study will be a primary source for all those who must use its contents to guide their decisions.

This book analyzes the family and residential trajectories of men and women across the twentieth century, which are placed in a long-term generational perspective and in the historical context where they played out. It brings together a set of studies based on data from the Biographies et Entourage (Life Event Histories and Entourage) survey conducted by the Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques (INED) on a representative sample of nearly 3,000 residents of the Paris region born between 1930 and 1950. Inside, readers will discover an insightful analysis of the family that moves away from such traditional concepts as the household or main residence and proposes new ones like the entourage and the residential system. This innovative approach to the family network describes an affective and residential proximity that takes into account the relatives and close friends who have played or continue to play a role in an individual's life. The book first presents a detailed analysis of the Biographies et Entourage survey respondents' parental universe and proposes a practical approach to the notion of parenthood that reveals the family and non-family resources available to individuals. Next, it describes the evolution of the respondents' family networks, both in and beyond the household, and details how these family circles shape their subjective judgments during childhood, adolescence, and adult life. Coverage then goes on to examine the family ties of older adults, the role of grandparents and step-families, the importance of family spaces including often frequented places, and inter-generational family solidarity. Families extend well beyond the walls of the home. Interpersonal relations are constructed throughout the life course and in all the settings where they play out. This book takes this new family reality into account and traces its dynamics across time and space. It provides essential tools for researchers looking to conduct life event history surveys and to develop innovative areas of research in the social sciences.

"Life on the Brink" aspires to reignite a robust discussion of population issues among environmentalists, environmental studies scholars, policymakers, and the general public. Some of the leading voices in the American environmental movement restate the case that population growth is a major force behind many of our most serious ecological problems, including global climate change, habitat loss and species extinctions, air and water pollution, and food and water scarcity. As we surpass seven billion world inhabitants, contributors argue that ending population growth worldwide and in the United States is a moral imperative that deserves renewed commitment.
Hailing from a range of disciplines and offering varied perspectives, these essays hold in common a commitment to sharing resources with other species and a willingness to consider what will be necessary to do so. In defense of nature and of a vibrant human future, contributors confront hard issues regarding contraception, abortion, immigration, and limits to growth that many environmentalists have become too timid or politically correct to address in recent years.
Ending population growth will not happen easily. Creating genuinely sustainable societies requires major change to economic systems and ethical values coupled with clear thinking and hard work. "Life on the Brink" is an invitation to join the discussion about the great work of building a better future.
Contributors: Albert Bartlett, Joseph Bish, Lester Brown, Tom Butler, Philip Cafaro, Martha Campbell, William R. Catton Jr., Eileen Crist, Anne Ehrlich, Paul Ehrlich, Robert Engelman, Dave Foreman, Amy Gulick, Ronnie Hawkins, Leon Kolankiewicz, Richard Lamm, Jeffrey McKee, Stephanie Mills, Roderick Nash, Tim Palmer, Charmayne Palomba, William Ryerson, Winthrop Staples III, Captain Paul Watson, Don Weeden, George Wuerthner.

During the past two decades, one of the most significant political and social changes has been the transfer of urban political leadership from aging ethnic-dominated political machines to coalitions led by blacks in cities such as Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Newark, and New Orleans. Bette Woody's analysis of modern urban government examines the political transformation of the 1970s and 1980s in the context of the failures of machine politics, traditional reforms, and racial policies of the prior two decades. Also discussed is the rise of neighborhood-based political coalitions to support black candidates, business elite support that these new leaders acquired, and the aggressive reform platforms they developed. In analyzing possibilities and strategies for current reform Woody focuses on five black mayors of big cities. A detailed case study of the success and failure of reform during Kenneth Gibson's administration in Newark reveals the importance of reorganizing city agencies and tax and budget structures in successful innovation.

Urbanization is a key process in developing countries. Within the next decade over 50 per cent of the world's population will inhabit urban areas and the majority of this growth is concentrated in developing countries. Analysing data for four large countries, this volume focuses on the relationship between economic change and urban growth. Specifically the authors examine the continued growth of industrial employment at the expense of the agricultural sector, the impact of government-controlled regional and industrial policy and the role of migration in response to employment opportunities. There are also important chapters on government responses to the lack of basic infrastructure, and the resulting negative impact on human welfare, in the cities. The volume's coherence results from the cross-country comparisons made by the authors and the conclusions that are not geographically restricted but have potential applications, by urban planners, in all developing countries.

A companion to the ALA-award-winning Retrospective Bibliography of American Demographic History (1989), this volume includes literature on American demographic history published from 1984 to 1994. It covers such topics as marriage and fertility; health, sickness, and mortality; immigration, settlement, and cultural patterns; and family and its structures, roles and values (including both gender and sexuality issues). It also cites works showing the broad intersections between population matters and such economic, political, and social phenomena as war, oppression, government policy, elections, labor stereotype, discrimination, and cross-cultural contact or relations. The bibliography organizes and describes citations to the rich historical literature on the ordinary life experiences of Americans, such as marriage, childbearing, health, migration, and ethnicity, and how these fundamental phenomena have been interconnected with the events of headline history. The book provides multiple points of access, through the detailed contents and through indexes of place, ethnicity, and topic.