The four volumes of The Social History of the American Family explore the vital role of the family as the fundamental social unit across the span of American history.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• List of Articles
• Reader's Guide
• About the Editors
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Chronology
• A
• AARP
• Abortion
• Acculturation
• ADC/AFDC
• Addams, Jane
• Adler, Alfred
• Adolescence
• Adolescent and Teen Rebellion
• Adolescent Pregnancy
• Adoption, Closed
• Adoption, Grandparents and
• Adoption, International
• Adoption, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People and
• Adoption, Mixed-Race
• Adoption, Open
• Adoption, Second Parents and
• Adoption, Single-Parents and
• Adoption Laws
• Advertising and Commercials, Families in
• Advice Columnists
• African American Families
• Agnostics
• Alan Guttmacher Institute
• Alcoholism and Addiction
• Alimony and Child Support
• Almshouses
• AMBER Alert
• American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• American Family Association
• American Family Therapy Academy
• American Home Economics Association
• “Anchor Babies”
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Anorexia
• Arranged Marriage
• Artificial Insemination
• Asian American Families
• Assimilation
• Assisted Living
• Assisted Reproduction Technology
• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
• Atheists
• Attachment Parenting
• Attachment Theories
• Automobiles
• B
• Baby Boom Generation
• Baby M
• Baby Showers
• Bandura, Alfred
• Baptism
• Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs
• Barbie Dolls
• “Best Interests of the Child” Doctrine
• Bettelheim, Bruno
• Birth Control Pills
• Birth Order
• Birthday Parties
• Blogs
• Books, Adult Fiction
• Books, Adult Nonfiction
• Books, Children's
• Boomerang Generation
• Bowen, Murray
• Bowlby, John
• Boy Scouts
• Brazelton, T. Berry
• Breadwinner-Homemaker Families
• Breadwinners
• Breastfeeding
• Bronfenbrenner, Urie
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Budgeting
• Bulimia
• Bullying
• C
• Camp Fire Girls
• Caregiver Burden
• Caring for the Elderly
• Catholicism
• CD-ROMs
• Cell Phones
• Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• Central and South American Immigrant Families
• Child Abuse
• Child Advocate
• Child Care
• Child Custody
• Child Health Insurance
• Child Labor
• Child Safety
• Child Study Association of America
• Child Support
• Child Support Enforcement
• Childhood in America
• Childless Couples
• Child-Rearing Experts
• Child-Rearing Manuals
• Child-Rearing Practices
• Children's Aid Society
• Children's Beauty Pageants
• Children's Bureau
• Children's Defense Fund
• Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
• Children's Rights Movement
• Children's Television Act
• Chinese Immigrant Families
• Christening
• Christianity
• Christmas
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Circumcision
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Unions
• Cocooning
• Cohabitation
• Collectivism
• Comic Strips
• Commercialization and Advertising Aimed at Children
• Common Law Marriage
• Communes
• Community Property
• Companionate Marriage
• Conflict Theory
• Constitution, U.S.
• Constructionist and Poststructuralist Theories
• Contraception: IUDs
• Contraception: Morning-After Pills
• Contraception and the Sexual Revolution
• Cooperative Extension Service
• Coparenting
• Council on Contemporary Families
• Courtship
• Covenant Marriage
• Credit Cards
• C-Sections
• Cult of Domesticity
• Cults
• Cultural Stereotypes in Media
• Curfews
• Custody and Guardianship
• D
• Date Nights
• Dating
• Dating Web Sites
• Day Care
• Deadbeat Dads
• Death and Dying
• Defense of Marriage Act
• Delinquency
• Demographic Changes: Age at First Marriage
• Demographic Changes: Aging of America
• Demographic Changes: Cohabitation Rates
• Demographic Changes: Divorce Rates
• Demographic Changes: Zero Population Growth/Birthrates
• Department Stores
• Desegregation in the Military
• Digital Divide
• Direct Home Sales
• Disability (Children)
• Disability (Parents)
• Discipline
• Disney/Disneyland/Amusement Parks
• Divorce and Religion
• Divorce and Separation
• Domestic Ideology
• Domestic Masculinity
• Domestic Partner Benefits
• Domestic Violence
• Dowries
• Dr. Phil
• Dr. Ruth
• DREAM Act
• Dreikurs, Rudolf
• Drive-Ins
• Dual-Income Couples/Dual-Earner Families
• E
• Earned Income Tax Credit
• Easter
• eBay
• Ecological Theory
• Education, College/University
• Education, Elementary
• Education, High School
• Education, Middle School
• Education, Postgrad
• Education, Preschool
• Education/Play Balance
• Egalitarian Marriages
• Elder Abuse
• E-Mail
• Emerging Adulthood
• Empty Nest Syndrome
• Engagement Parties
• Engagement Rings
• Equal Rights Amendment
• Erectile Dysfunction Pills
• Estate Planning
• Estate Taxes
• Ethnic Enclaves
• Ethnic Food
• Evangelicals
• Every Child Matters
• Evolutionary Theories
• Extended Families
• F
• Facebook
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Families and Health
• Family and Medical Leave Act
• Family Businesses
• Family Consumption
• Family Counseling
• Family Development Theory
• Family Farms
• Family Housing
• Family Life Education
• Family Mediation/Divorce Mediation
• Family Medicine
• Family Planning
• Family Research Council
• Family Reunions
• Family Service Association of America
• Family Stress Theories
• Family Therapy
• Family Values
• Fatherhood, Responsible
• Father's Day
• Fathers’ Rights
• Feminism
• Feminist Theory
• Fertility
• Film, 1930s
• Film, 1940s
• Film, 1950s
• Film, 1960s
• Film, 1970s
• Film, 1980s
• Film, 1990s
• Film, 2000s
• Film, 2010s
• Film, Silent
• First Generation
• Flickr
• Focus on the Family
• Food Shortages and Hunger
• Food Stamps
• Foster Care
• Foster Families
• Fragile Families
• Freud, Sigmund
• Frontier Families
• Frozen Food
• Functionalist Theory
• Funerals
• G
• Games and Play
• Gated Communities
• Gatekeeping
• Gay and Lesbian Marriage Laws
• Gender Roles
• Gender Roles in Mass Media
• Genealogy and Family Trees
• Generation Gap
• Generation X
• Generation Y
• Genetics and Heredity
• German Immigrant Families
• Gesell, Arnold Lucius
• Girl Scouts
• Godparents
• Grandparenting
• Grandparents Day
• Grandparents’ Rights
• Great Awakening
• Great Society Social Programs
• Green Card Marriages
• Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family
• H
• Half-Siblings
• Hall, G. Stanley
• Hanukkah
• Head Start
• Health Care Power of Attorney
• Health of American Families
• Healthy Marriage Initiative
• Higher Education Act
• Hite Report
• HIV/AIDS
• Hochschild, Arlie
• Holt, Luthor
• Home Economics
• Home Health Care
• Home Mortgage Deduction
• Homelessness
• Homemaker
• Homestead Act
• Hooking Up
• Household Appliances
• Housing Crisis
• Housing Policy
• Human Genome Project
• I
• Immigrant Families
• Immigration Policy
• Incest
• Indian (Asian) Immigrant Families
• Individualism
• Industrial Revolution Families
• Infertility
• Information Age
• Inheritance
• Inheritance Tax/Death Tax
• In-Laws
• Intensive Mothering
• Interfaith Marriage
• Intergenerational Transmission
• Internet
• Internet Pornography, Child
• Interracial Marriage
• Intersex Marriage
• Interventions
• Irish Immigrant Families
• Islam
• It Takes a Village Proverb
• Italian Immigrant Families
• J
• Japanese Immigrant Families
• Judaism and Orthodox Judaism
• K
• Kindergarten
• Kinsey, Alfred (Kinsey Institute)
• Korean Immigrant Families
• Kwanzaa
• L
• Language Brokers
• Later-Life Families
• Latino Families
• Learning Disorders
• Leisure Electronics
• Leisure Time
• Levittown
• Life Course Perspective
• Living Apart Together
• Living Together Apart
• Living Wage
• Love, Types of
• M
• MADD
• Magazines, Children's
• Magazines, Women's
• “Mama's Boy” and “Daddy's Girl”
• Marital Division of Labor
• Marketing to and Data Collection on Families/Children
• Maslow, Abraham
• Masters and Johnson
• Maternity Leaves
• McDonald's
• Me Decade
• Mead, Margaret
• Mealtime and Family Meals
• Medicaid
• Medicare
• Melting Pot Metaphor
• Mental Disorders
• Merger Doctrine
• Mexican Immigrant Families
• Middle East Immigrant Families
• Middle-Class Families
• Midlife Crisis
• Midwestern Families
• Military Families
• Million Man March
• Minimum Wage
• Minuchin, Salvador
• Miscegenation
• Mommy Wars
• Montessori
• Mother's Day
• Mothers in the Workforce
• Moynihan Report
• Multigenerational Households
• Multilingualism
• Multiple Partner Fertility
• Multiracial Families
• Music in the Family
• Myspace
• Myth of Motherhood
• N
• National Affordable Housing Act
• National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
• National Center on Elder Abuse
• National Child Labor Committee
• National Council on Family Relations
• National Partnership for Women and Families
• Native American Families
• Natural Disasters
• Natural Families
• Nature Versus Nurture Debate
• New Deal
• New Fatherhood
• No-Fault Divorce
• Nuclear Family
• Nursing Homes
• O
• Obesity
• Office of Child Support Enforcement
• One Percent, The
• Online Shopping
• Open Marriages
• Orphan Trains
• Other Mothers
• Overmothering
• P
• Palimony
• Parent Education
• Parent Effectiveness Training
• Parental Controls
• Parental Supervision
• Parenting
• Parenting Plans
• Parenting Styles
• Parents as Teachers
• Parents Without Partners
• Passover
• Paternity Leaves
• Paternity Testing
• Patriachal Terrorism
• Personal Computers
• Personal Computers in the Home
• Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters
• Pets
• PFLAG
• Planned Parenthood
• Polio
• Polish Immigrant Families
• Polyamory
• Polygamy
• Postpartum Depression
• Poverty and Poor Families
• Poverty Line
• Power of Attorney
• Preferential Treatment
• Prenatal Care and Pregnancy
• Prenuptial Agreements
• PREP Program
• PREPARE/ENRICH Programs
• Problem Child
• Prohibition
• Promise Keepers
• Promise Rings
• Protestants
• Psychoanalytic Theories
• Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
• Q
• Quinceañera Ceremonies
• R
• Radio: 1920 to 1930
• Radio: 1931 to 1950
• Radio: 1951 to 1970
• Rape
• Rational Choice Theory
• Reading to Children
• Reality Television
• Relational Dialectics
• Religious Holidays
• Religiously Affiliated Schools
• Remarriage
• Retirement
• Richards, Ellen
• Rituals
• Rockwell, Norman
• Roe v. Wade
• Rogers, Carl
• Runaways and Homeless Youth
• Rural Families
• S
• Saints Days
• Same-Sex Marriage
• Satir, Virginia
• School Shootings/Mass Shootings
• Segregation
• Self-Help, Culture of
• Separate Sphere Ideology
• Sex Information and Education Council of the United States
• Shakers
• Shared Custody
• Sharia Law
• Shelters
• Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act of 1921
• Shopping Centers and Malls
• Sibling Rivalry
• Single-Parent Families
• Skinner, B. F.
• Skype
• Slave Families
• Smart Marriages Conferences
• Soccer Moms
• Social Exchange Theory
• Social Fatherhood
• Social History of American Families: Colonial Era to 1776
• Social History of American Families: 1777 to 1789
• Social History of American Families: 1790 to 1850
• Social History of American Families: 1851 to 1900
• Social History of American Families: 1901 to 1920
• Social History of American Families: 1921 to 1940
• Social History of American Families: 1941 to 1960
• Social History of American Families: 1961 to 1980
• Social History of American Families: 1981 to 2000
• Social History of American Families: 2001 to the Present
• Social Mobility
• Social Security
• Society for Research in Child Development
• Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
• Southern Families
• Southwestern Families
• Speed Dating
• Spock, Benjamin
• Sports
• Standard North American Family
• Standard of Living
• Stay-at-Home Fathers
• Stepchildren
• Stepfamilies
• Stepfamily Association of America
• Stepparenting
• Stepsiblings
• Student Loans/College Aid
• Suburban Families
• Suicide
• Sun City and Retirement Communities
• Sunday School
• Supermarkets
• Surrogacy
• Swaddling
• Sweet Sixteen
• Swinging
• Symbolic Interaction Theory
• Systems Theory
• T
• Tabula Rasa
• TANF
• Technology
• Teen Alcohol and Drug Abuse
• Teen Pregnancy
• Telephones
• Television
• Television, 1940s
• Television, 1950s
• Television, 1960s
• Television, 1970s
• Television, 1980s
• Television, 1990s
• Television, 2000s
• Television, 2010s
• Television for Children
• Temperance
• Tender Years Doctrine
• Texting
• Thanksgiving
• Theater
• Third Wave Feminism
• Tossed Salad Metaphor
• Toys
• Trailer Parks
• Transgender Marriage
• Trusts
• Truth in Lending Act of 1968
• Twenty-Four-Hour News Reporting and Effect on Families/Children
• Twitter
• U
• Uniform Parentage Act
• Union Families
• Urban Families
• Utopian Experiments and Communities
• V
• Vacations
• Valentine's Day
• Video Games
• Vietnam War
• Vietnamese Immigrant Families
• W
• War on Poverty
• War on Terror
• Watson, John B.
• Wealthy Families
• Wedding Showers
• Weddings
• Weekends
• Welfare
• Welfare Reform
• Westward Expansion
• Wet Nursing
• White Flight
• White House Conference on Families
• “White Trash”
• Widowhood
• Wife Battering
• Wii
• Wills
• Work and Family
• Working Mothers
• Working-Class Families/Working Poor
• WPA
• Y
• YMCA
• YouTube
• Yuppies
• YWCA
• Primary Documents
• 1619: Transport of Children to Virginia
• 1621: Transport of Women to Virginia to Be Wives
• 1633: Will of Samuel Fuller
• 1636: The Laws Against Sexual Misconduct in the Plymouth Colony
• 1642: Massachusetts Bay School Laws
• 1656: Poem: In Reference to Her Children
• 1682: An Epistle to the Household of Faith
• 1712: About the Duties of Husbands and Wives (From “A Well-Ordered Family”)
• 1712: Duties of Children to Parents
• 1713: Diary of Cotton Mather Family Deaths
• 1724: Of Education in Virginia
• 1733: The Declaration, Dying Warning and Advice of Rebekah Chamblit
• 1741: The Manner of the Children's Spending Their Time at the Orphan House in Georgia
• 1759: William Penn's Counsel and Advice to His Wife and Children
• 1768: An Aged Father's Advice to His Son
• 1773: Letter Philip Vickers Fithian Plantation Tutor
• 1782: Letters From an American Farmer
• 1790: Reflections on Parental Care and Filial Duty
• 1790: On Early Marriage
• 1818: Manner of Conducting Sunday Schools
• 1818: Common Book of Prayer Marriage Ceremony
• 1820: American Domestic Cookery
• 1822: Description of Worker Conditions at Manufactory in Humphreysville, Connecticut
• 1828: Constitution of Phillips Academy
• 1832: Excerpts From Gustave de Beaumont's Marie or Slavery in the United States
• 1834: Should Females Be Employed in Cookery?
• 1839: Trials of a Housekeeper
• 1840: Every Family Is a Little State, or Empire Within Itself …
• 1844: Idleness in Our City
• 1844: Views of Matrimony
• 1857: Description of the Conditions of Schools in Ohio
• 1860: Homes of the Slaves
• 1862: Homestead Act
• 1875: Government Lands
• 1875: Confirmation at the Synagogue
• 1875: Chapter 1 From Biography of a Slave
• 1880: Mother and Father
• 1882: The Debate: Continuation of the Cannon-Campbell Contest in the House
• 1882: “Higher Culture of Women” in American Etiquette and Rules of Politeness
• 1888: Wealthiest Colored Family in America: “The Lincoln Heirs”
• 1889: Finding His Family
• 1892: Divorce Made Easy
• 1893: Slaves of Indians
• 1894: Report of the Grand Ronde Agency From the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Grand Ronde Indians in Oregon
• 1898: Changing a Bad Indian Into a Good One
• 1898: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Childhood Christmas
• 1900: Emma Jenkins Writes About the Garey Family Overland Trip From Missouri to California 1850 to 1852
• 1901: The Kind of Wife I Should Choose for My Son, the Kind of Husband I Should Choose for My Daughter
• 1901: Love, Courtship, and Marriage
• 1902: The Trials and Tribulations of a Debutante
• 1902: Showers of All Kinds
• 1903: The Parents’ Corner: Duties of a Godmother
• 1903: Seven Miles of Wedding Rings
• 1904: The Shakers of Shirley
• 1904: Athletics and Collateral Activities in Secondary Schools
• 1905: Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: Patents and Allotments
• 1905: Child Training
• 1906: Wilbur M. Swett Letter Describing the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
• 1906: The Pure Food and Drug Act
• 1906: Paupers Growing Fewer
• 1907: Marriage and Divorce
• 1907: What Is a Child
• 1907: Christening of a Greek Child at a Russian Greek Orthodox Church
• 1907: Love Proves Superior to Law's Decrees
• 1909: Leaders of Women's Christian Temperance Union
• 1910: Traditions of the Home Life and Training of Omaha Indian Children
• 1910: Dowries of the East Side
• 1910: Meaning of Census Terms
• 1910: Reformed Judaism: A Plan for Its Reconstruction
• 1910: Great Work Being Done on Omaha School Play Grounds
• 1912: Amazing System of Teaching Young Children
• 1912: Jane Addams: Foremost Citizen of Chicago
• 1913: Get an Automobile—If You Can
• 1913: Babies: What to Do to Make ‘Em Healthy
• 1913: How the Camp Fire Girls Are Preparing for Sex Equality
• 1913: Special Classes for Special Children
• 1914: Joint Resolution to Create Mother's Day
• 1915: Seven Years in Jail for Being a Mother!—Law and Society Attack Young Girl
• 1915: Separate Colleges for Women Criticised
• 1915: In the Wilderness
• 1916: Are Children's Parents Their Worst Enemies?
• 1916: Ten Commandments Are the Civil and Religious Laws of Community
• 1916: Mrs. Mary Ann Taylor-Dixon 91st Birthday
• 1916: No Wedding Bells, No Trouseau in the Latest Way of Mating
• 1916: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
• 1917: Home Economics Work to Be Emphasized
• 1917: The Case for Birth Control
• 1918: New England City Has Boy Scouts
• 1918: Letters From “Our Boys”
• 1919: Negro Welfare Association
• 1919: What Is a “Good Wife”?
• 1919: Health Talks by Dr. Wm. Brady
• 1919: Americanization Begins at Home—With Mother
• 1920: Another Victory for Prohibition Forces
• 1920: Some Seder Sentiments
• 1920: If He Talks in His Sleep—It Isn't True
• 1920: Confirmation of Large Class at Catholic Church
• 1921: Ceremony of Jewish Circumcision Held Sunday
• 1921: Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act
• 1922: Can Science Determine Your Baby's Career Before It Can Talk?
• 1935: Social Security Act
• 1938: Fair Labor Standards Act
• 1939: Democracy in Negro Education
• 1942: Lowering the Draft Age to 18
• 1943: Wartime Employment of Boys and Girls
• 1954: Japanese-American Evacuation Claims
• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education Decision
• 1960: “Migrant Children Need Day Care and Other Welfare Services”
• 1964: Civil Rights Act
• 1965: Amendments to the Social Security Act
• 1967: Loving v. Virginia
• 1968: The American Negro and the Program of Aid to Families with Dependent Children
• 1972: Joint Resolution to Create Father's Day
• 1978: White House Conference on Families—Statement Announcing the Conference
• 1986: Children's Defense Fund Report—Adolescent Pregnancy: Whose Problem Is It?
• 1990: Children's Television Act of 1990
• 1994: Testimony of Parents of Disabled Children
• 1996: Defense of Marriage Act
• 2000: The Role of Technology in America's Schools
• 2001: Youth Violence—A Report of the Surgeon General
• 2009: Cyberbullying and Other Online Safety Issues for Children
• 2012: Statement in the Aftermath of the Sandy Hook School Shootings
• 2012: More About Vaccines
• Glossary
• Resource Guide
• Appendix. America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2012
• Photo Credits