RECENT WORK ON THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY: A Review Article, by Barbara Harris

Published in Feminist Studies, 1976


summary: Harris takes Christoper Lasch to task for trying to fit the available information on the history of family structure into a new overarching  theory to explain changes. She agrees with Lasch that the standard theory, that is that 'modernization' was the impetus  for the change from the extend family to the nuclear family, is inadequate. She points out convincingly that there is not enough information in general -- and the information that is availabe is contradictory. But where she disagrees with  Lasch's is in his trying to substitute another theory for the old one.