Practice question · Multiple choice
Laslett found mean household size in England stable at about 4.75 people from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. Why does that finding undercut the claim that industrialisation broke up the extended family?
Hints
- The claim being tested is about a change over time, so ask what the earlier figure was.
- A stable series cannot support a story about a break.
Show the answer
A. Small pre-industrial households mean no large extended units existed to be broken up
Why
A story about a break requires two different states, and the household listings show one. Where pre-industrial households were larger, the extra people were usually servants, apprentices and lodgers, and few grandparents survived to co-reside. The nuclear household in north-west Europe is older than the factory.
Practise Family, Gender and Sexuality
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