Population Index - Volume 57

Volume 57 - Number 1 - Spring 1991

I. Historical Demography and Demographic History

Studies dealing with the demographic events of any given period from the early historical to the modern, defined as being World War I.

I.1. General Historical Demography

Comprehensive surveys, notes of sources, and items on the state of research. Particularly concerned with the period before modern vital registration was introduced and censuses were taken. Historical items that primarily pertain to one specific demographic variable are classified first under the specific heading and then cross-referenced to this heading.

57:10570 Courtwright, David T. The neglect of female children and childhood sex ratios in nineteenth-century America: a review of the evidence. Journal of Family History, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1990. 313-23 pp. Greenwich, Connecticut/London, England. In Eng.
The author examines childhood sex ratios in nineteenth-century United States. "Antebellum census records show that there were slightly higher than average numbers of male children in the western states and territories of the United States and slightly lower than average numbers of male children in eastern areas. It has been suggested that this imbalance was due to the economically inspired neglect of female children in rural and frontier areas, but this hypothesis does not hold up to close inspection. Better explanations are that more boys were born in, survived childhood in, or moved to western regions."
Correspondence: D. T. Courtwright, University of North Florida, Department of History, Jacksonville, FL 32216. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

57:10571 Kent, David A. "Gone for a soldier": family breakdown and the demography of desertion in a London parish, 1750-91. Local Population Studies, No. 45, Autumn 1990. 27-42 pp. Matlock, England. In Eng.
The author discusses family breakdown and the desertion of wives in urban preindustrial England, using data from over 3,000 Poor Law settlement cases from parish records for the period 1750-1795.
Correspondence: D. A. Kent, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

57:10572 Klepp, Susan E. Philadelphia in transition: a demographic history of the city and its occupational groups, 1720-1830. Garland Studies in Historical Demography, ISBN 0-8240-4164-X. LC 90-30326. 1989. vii, 356 pp. Garland Publishing: New York, New York/London, England. In Eng.
This is a demographic history of the city of Philadelphia from 1720 to 1830, which is a revision of the author's 1980 Ph.D. thesis. It includes chapters on marriage and pregnancy outside of marriage, fertility and family size, and mortality and morbidity.
Correspondence: Garland Publishing, 136 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Location: U.S. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

57:10573 Piasecki, Edmund. Population of the Bejsce parish (Kielce voivodship) according to parish registers of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries: a demographic study. [Ludnosc parafii bejskiej (woj. kieleckie) w swietle ksiag metrykalnych z XVIII-XX w.: studium demograficzne.] ISBN 83-01-08950-4. 1990. 373 pp. Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe: Warsaw, Poland; Polska Akademia Nauk, Zaklad Antropologii: Warsaw, Poland. In Pol. with sum. in Eng.
Data from parish registers are used to analyze historical demographic trends in the Polish parish of Bejsce, in Kielce voivodship, from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Chapters are included on the data sources and methods used, the reliability of the data, population growth, seasonal variations, marriage, fertility, family characteristics, mortality, and the population dynamics of the parish in comparison with contemporary demographic trends in Poland as a whole and elsewhere in Europe.
Correspondence: Panstowowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, ul. Miosowa 10, Skrytka pocztowa 391, 00-251 Warsaw, Poland. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

57:10574 Underwood, Jane H. Population history of Nauru: a cautionary tale. Micronesia, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1989. 3-22 pp. Agana, Guam. In Eng.
"Available records relating to Nauruan population attributes are critically evaluated to develop a reconstructed population history of this native Micronesian people. Historical evidence consists of documentation of the effects of diseases and modern warfare and more recent behavioral changes traceable to altered economic conditions. Unpredictable and dramatic fluctuations in population characteristics throughout the historic period are revealed, precluding the use of standard population models. Even structural similarities at widely separated time periods are shown to be insufficient evidence of stable population conditions, a cautionary finding for paleodemographers, archaeologists, and others working throughout the Pacific."
Correspondence: J. H. Underwood, University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology, Tucson, AZ 85721. Location: University of Florida Libraries.

57:10575 Watkins, Susan C. From provinces into nations: demographic integration in Western Europe, 1870-1960. ISBN 0-691-09451-9. LC 90-36900. 1991. xvii, 235 pp. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey. In Eng.
The author examines the shift toward greater demographic homogeneity that occurred in the countries of Western Europe between 1870 and 1960, and places it in the context of similar trends toward less linguistic diversity, greater national market integration, the expansion of the state's activities, and nation-building as a whole. "The book interprets the shift as evidence of the influence of communities on demographic behavior, and as an indication of the growing predominance of national over local communities. The author uses demographic data...to examine themes of interest to historians, sociologists, economists, and political scientists interested in the integration of modern societies." The demographic factors considered include marital fertility, illegitimacy, and marriage patterns.
Correspondence: Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08540. Location: Princeton University Library (SPR).

I.2. Methods of Historical Demography

Applications of demographic methodology to the records of the past in order to obtain further demographic information. Relevant items are coded here and cross-referenced to N. Methods of Research and Analysis Including Models if of more general interest than to historical demography alone.

57:10576 Ginsberg, Caren A. Estimates and correlates of enumeration completeness: censuses and maps in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. Social Science History, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring 1988. 71-86 pp. Durham, North Carolina. In Eng.
"This study investigates data quality of two sources by their enumeration comparability and in addition discusses some of the problems with such a comparison. The two sources compared are household listings of the United States manuscript federal censuses and independently prepared maps detailing property owners and the location of their property. The method employed estimates the correspondence of listings in each source based on the other and the combined enumeration correspondence of both sources. Further, this paper examines some of the village-level demographic and economic factors which may be associated with differences in the relative completeness of these sources."
Correspondence: C. A. Ginsberg, University of Georgia, Department of Sociology, Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA 30602. Location: Princeton University Library (FST).