A historical perspective on family change in Europe

Abstract

Research on the history of the European family has been one of the main strands of ʼnew social history’ since the 1960s. Since the 1980s, cultural historical approaches gained increasing influence. This chapter aims to exemplify these ‘historical perspectives’ by focusing on three topics: (1) the diversity of family forms in pre-modern Europe, which serves as a starting point for the discussion of trends towards standardisation as well as parallel or renewed diversification; (2) familial gender relations since medieval times, which reveal the precarious balance between women having a strong position and male dominance; (3) the evolution of generational relations, which paves the way to questioning popular views and academic theories about the novelty of modern and post-modern family relations.