Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective covers a life-course analysis in relation to history and the application of the approach to a common data set for late 19th-century American communities in Essex County, Massachusetts. The book discusses the life-course development in relation to historical change; the historical changes in age configurations along the life course; and the use of demographic scaffolding for analyzing family behavior and life-course transitions. The text also describes models of economic behavior to the historical patterns; the choices that i