This book explores the history of the family in Lancashire during and after industrialisation. The family is society's most basic building block and, as each contributor shows, its ability to adapt to circumstances is one of its most enduring qualities. Economic change created social stresses which, whilst resulting in administrative and institutional change, were primarily absorbed within family groups. Indeed, it could be argued that the family was society's most effective safety valve and shock absorber, as individuals responded to the pressures created by industrialisation with its associated problems. This book brings together the work of leading historians who have each made unique contributions to our understanding of the family in the North West.
About the Author: Professor Michael Anderson is Professor of Economic History at the University of Edinburgh and has published extensively on the history of the family in Western Europe, on Western European and Scottish contemporary and historical demography, and on the operations of the household economy in 20th century Britain. His publications include: Family Structure in Nineteenth Century Lancashire (Cambridge University Press, 1971); Approaches to the History of the Western Family 1500-1914 (Macmillan, 1981); Population Change in North-western Europe, 1750-1850 (Macmillan, 1988). Dr Stephen Caunce is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Central Lancashire. His research interests focus on the transformation of the north of England, and especially Lancashire and Yorkshire, between 1600 and 1900, and also the examination, through evidence rather than theory, of the impact of this process upon ordinary people. His publications include: Amongst farm horses, (Sutton, 1991); Oral history and the local historian (Longman, 1994). Dr Alan Crosby has been a freelance historian, researcher, lecturer and author since 1983. He is currently editor of the journal Local Historian. Dr Crosby is author/editor of more than 65 books and articles including: Leading the way: a history of Lancashire's roads, (Lancashire County Books, 1998); A History of Lancashire (Phillimore, 1998) Dr Andrew Gritt (editor) is Director of the Institute of Local and Family History at the University of Central Lancashire where he is a senior lecturer in history. He has published articles on various aspects of rural history and population history in Economic History Review, Agricultural History Review, Rural History and Local Population Studies. He is currently researching related projects on poverty, the family, post-compulsory education and social mobility. Dr Elizabeth Roberts began collecting oral testimonies from elderly people in Barrow and Lancaster in 1971 as part of her research for her PhD. To further this work she was awarded an S.S.R.C. grant. Her later projects, which were supported by E.S.R.C. grants, included work in Preston as well as in Barrow and Lancaster. In all 250 informants were interviewed and the tapes and indexed transcripts now form an archive held in Lancaster University. The work was carried out under the auspices of the Centre for North West Regional Studies where Dr Roberts became the Administrator and later the Director until her retirement in 1999. She is currently Emeritus Reader in the History of the Family. Her publications include: A Woman's Place: An oral History, 1990-1940, (Basil Blackwell 1984); Women's Work, 1940-1940, (Macmillan, 1988); Women and Families: An oral history, 1940-1970, (Blackwell 1995).