Family Welfare: Gender, Property, and Inheritance since the Seventeenth Century

by David R. Green (Editor), Alastair Owens (Editor)

Overview

The history of welfare provision has generally focused on the rise of the so-called welfare state and institutional provision for the poor. Recent studies have begun to look beyond the state to other ways in which assistance, care, and support were provided in the past, but the focus remains primarily on the poor. This work widens our understanding of welfare by focusing not on the poor but on those who have some wealth. It draws attention to the importance of family as part of a mixed economy of welfare provision that also incorporates the state, the market, and the voluntary sector.

This book offers an exciting new approach to the history of welfare by focusing attention on the complex range of sources of support drawn on to meet family needs. The chapters highlight the significance of the family as a link in in the provision of assistance. They also focus on the role played by gender relations in shaping welfare strategies. An extensive introduction is followed by ten chapters presenting detailed studies of the provision of family welfare across western Europe and the United States over the past four hundred years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313323287
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/2004
Series:	Contributions in Family Studies , #18
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

DAVID R. GREEN is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at King's College London. For the past five years he has been editor of the London Jourbanal and has published widely in urban history.

ALASTAIR OWENS is Lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Appendices
Preface
Contributors
Introduction: Family Welfare and the Welfare Family by David R. Green and Alastair Owens
Land Transmission and Inheritance Practices in France during the Ancien Regime: Differences of Degree or Kind? by Gerard Beaur
Emigration, Gender and Inheritance: A Case Study of the High Auvergne, 1700-1900, by Rose Duroux
Headship Succession and Retirement in South Bohemia, 1640-1840, by Hermann Zeitlhofer
Close Relatives and Useful Relatives: Welfare, Inheritance and the Use of Kinship in an Alpine Dynasty, 1650-1800, by Sandro Guzzi-Heeb
Wealth, Gender, and Inheritance Amongst the U.S. Elite: The Rockefellers and Binghams by Marsha Shapiro Rose
Family Networks and the Transmission of Assets: Managing the Property and Care of Orphans 18th-Century Amsterdam by Anne E. C. McCants
Did Women Invent Life Insurance? Widows and the Demand for Financial Services in 18th-Century Germany by Eve Rosenhaft
Women without Gender: Commerce, Exchange Codes and the Erosion of German Gender Guardianship, 1680-1830 by Robert Beachy
Minors, Guardians, and Inheritance in Early 19th-Century Sweden: A Case of Gendered Property Rights by Ann Ighe
Marriage and Economic Rights: Women, Men, and Property in Sweden during the First Half of the 20th Century by by Kirsti Niskanen
Bibliography
Index