ABSTRACT
For institutions now believed crucial in any society, parenthood and family received remarkably little attention from historians prior to the early 1960s. Convinced that the adult male world of politics, war, diplomacy, and economics should command center stage in historical narrative and analysis, historians gave relatively short shrift to social and cultural history. The 1960s produced many changes in U.S. society as a whole and in historians’ approaches to the scope and focus of their work. One result of this revolution within the discipline of history is the burgeoning attention given heretofore marginalized peoples—women, ethnic groups, middle and lower classes—and institutions—family, childrearing, community groups, and fraternal organizations. Only because of this revolution in historical interest and inquiry is it now possible to reconstruct the often fragmented history of family life and parenting.
