Studies in American Historical Demography

Book excerpt: Studies in American Historical Demography is a collection of the best studies in American historical demography. The book discusses some methodological and conceptual considerations in the trends in American historical demography; the demographic history of colonial New England; and the marital migration in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the colonial and early federal periods. The text also describes the historical trends in parental power and marriage patterns in Hingham, Massachusetts; the use of demographic data that are, or may be, retrieved from colonial New England gravestones; and the mortality rates and trends in Massachusetts, Massachusetts. The estimates of the vital rates of the United States black population during the 19th century; the two-parent household; as well as the differential fertility in Madison County, New York, 1865 are also considered. The book further tackles the socioeconomic determinants of interstate fertility differentials in the United States in 1850 and 1860; cohorts of native born Massachusetts women, 1830-1920; and the demographic change and the life cycle of American families. Historians, demographers, anthropologists, economists, and sociologists will find the book invaluable.