Prosperity and Parenthood: A Study of Family Planning among the Victorian Middle Classes [Hardcover]

First Published in 1954, Prosperity and Parenthood is a study of Victorian middle-class ideas about the standard of living, marriage, and the responsibilities of family life. The book begins by tracing the fall in fertility in the 1870s to a change in the middle-class conception of parenthood and goes on to show that the standard of living considerably expanded during the period of great prosperity, roughly 1850 to 1870.

The author also gives a detailed study of what the middle classes considered appropriate for a civilized existence and ends by considering the Great Depression as a possible factor attacking the actual level of living and making it possible for the middle classes to maintain established standards only by cutting down the size of their families. This is an important historical reference work for students and scholars of sociology, sociology of family, British sociology, social history, and medical sociology.

Acknowledgements 1. The Decline in Fertility 2. The Population Controversy 3. The Proper Time to Marry 4. The Pattern of Expenditure 5. Domestic Assistance 6. The Paraphernalia of Gentility 7. Incomes 8. A Case Study- Anthony Trollope 9. The Eighteen Seventies and After 10. Birth Control and the Size of the Family 11. The Cost of Children 12. The Standard of Living and the Fall in Fertility Appendices Notes Subject Index Index of Persons, Organizations, Sources, etc.

First Published in 1954, Prosperity and Parenthood is a study of Victorian middle-class ideas about the standard of living, marriage, and the responsibilities of family life.This is an important work ls6