As in so many other parts of Europe, the northern Italian community of Casalecchio experienced massive social and economic changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Characterized by sharecropping agriculture and large, complex family households, the community faced the effects of industrialization, urbanization and dramatic political changes. The book represents an unprecedented interdisciplinary effort to discover how changes in family life and demographic behaviour actually occurred in this crucial period, and how people's lives were affected. The book takes issue with a...

In Dolor y Alegria (Sorrow and Joy), fifteen mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca speak about the dramatic effects that urbanization and rapid social change have had on their lives. Sarah LeVine deftly combines these autobiographical vignettes with ethnographic material, survey findings, and her own observations. The result is a vivid picture of contrast and continuity.
While many earlier publications have focused on the poor of Latin America who live at the margins of urban life, Dolor y Alegria explores the experiences of ordinary...

Painful Inheritance is the first comprehensive examination of the impact of single motherhood on the physical and mental health of women and their children. Based on solid scientific information, it documents serious, long-term health consequences associated with the poverty and social disorganization in which such families often live.
Ronald J. Angel and Jacqueline L. Angel show that the elevated health risks associated with single motherhood are largely the result of factors related to social class, including early motherhood and chronic poverty. They demonstrate the dependency...