Assumptions about the family of the past pervade the expectations we bring to our personal interactions and shape the way we think about and study the family as a social institution. Most often, undergraduate courses in family sociology have a marriage and family focus, which emphasizes the dynamics of interpersonal relations and contemporary family roles. Similarly, sociological concerns focus on the present and the future of family life, with little attention to the past except as it provides a contrast with current experience.The research conducted by family historians over the past three...