Penguin Putnam Inc. Those who are interested in family life and human nature will do well to read this book. It documents the amazing continuity in structure and emotional dynamics of family life across several centuries and falsifies the claims that family life has changed markedly with industrialization and the development of 20th/2lst-century culture. Relying upon the documents of several families living in the 16th and early 17th century, it provides a moving and gripping picture of families, mothers, fathers, teenagers, courtship, and professions. At a time when there was no safety net of any sort for anybody, the family was the place where the struggle for a good life was nurtured and maintained. There is an immediate difference from today's world in that the mortality of children and adults was very high. At least a fourth to over half of children born died rather quickly. Both men and women were likely to have several marriages as spouses also often died leaving a partner either a widow or a widower. Families combined and recombined not because of divorce but rather death. Disease, accident, brigandage, but above all the recurrent outbreaks of the plague killed many. Survivors continued and coped but most assuredly with grief and anguish even though death was an ever present imminent potential. Through all of this, however, the emotional involvement of young people falling in love, courtship, marriage, choosing and developing careers, and the love of parents and children are evident. There is little or no difference between the anguish of a father of the 16th century whose son is unable to find a direction and fails most everything attempted and a 20th century father. There is the same parental concern with the education and happiness of children, both male and female. There is the same concern for a mother whose 17-year-old son is far away at school and has trouble with handling money so she fears being overindulgent but goes ahead and sends more money. The book ends with a letter setting forth what parents want and hope for for their child who is setting out to build his own life. The same concerns with behavior, observing commonsense ideas about honesty, work having loving relationships, and staying within normal and rewarding bounds are present. What these 16th-century parents tried to communicate with their child is what any 20th-century parent would also endorse and advise. What comes through in this book is the amazing resilience, the strength, and the common humanity across time that finds expression and fulfillment in family life. It is a living and powerfully moving reality which this book conveys. Reviewed by Ralph Underwager, Institute for Psychological Therapies.
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