Women, Gender, and Children

In her article, "Whither Family History" Nara Milanich points out several problems with the study of family history in the today's scholarship. One of her main focuses is the problem of sources. She quotes extensively from The History of the European Family (HEF) as a very broad overview that focuses on continuity and the transition from the traditional to the modern. As she builds her arguement she challenges these traditional forms of scholarly research and proposes that by understanding family history on a global scale we can better understand differences in race, gender, and class. In this article she specifically quotes several studies done in Latin America and analyzes how they compare, and what they can reveal about traditional Western studies. According to Milanich in order to acheive this global study we must "accommodate the full range of cross-cultural and historical variation." Arguments of change and transition in the family must allow for differences across race, class, and culture. Fortunately, the study of the family can also help us better understand those differences.