Microhistories: Demography, Society and Culture in Rural England, 1800-1930

This book uses a local study of the Blean area of Kent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to explore some of the more significant societal changes of the modern Western world. Drawing on a wide range of research techniques, including family reconstitution and oral history, Barry Reay examines topics such as marriage and fertility, health and mortality, the work of women and children, and illegitimacy and sexuality. This book is an exciting example of the "new rural history", and will be of interest to rural and family historians, as well as demographers and sociologists.