Family Welfare: Gender, Property, and Inheritance since the Seventeenth Century (review)

This collection of essays examines how families ensured the survival of their dependent members. The contributors, an international consortium, examine issues of property transmission from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, mostly in a European context. Topics include headship succession and retirement, the role of migration in marriage formation, guardianship and women's economic independence, and the Swedish Marriage Act of 1921, with a strong emphasis on questions about inheritance. In terms of methodology, the essays vary from microhistories and case studies of notable families, such as the Rockefellers, to data-oriented aggregate information based on family reconstitution and probate records.

As the title suggests, the essays are tied together with the theme of family welfare. The editors note that the group is expanding the habitual definition of welfare; rather than thinking about it as institutional aid for the poor, the authors define it as a means to social reproduction and familial continuation that embraces every social status. The goal of the book is to explore the role of the family as one form of welfare, while examining how it interacted with other more traditional forms of institutional assistance. It also aims to explore how gender fits into this scheme.

Most of the authors make a point to relate their essay to the greater issue of welfare and the role of kin. For example, Anne E. C. McCants' essay on orphanages in eighteenth-century Amsterdam shows that relatives shared responsibility with the community in providing for orphans. Ann Ighe's discussion of guardianship in nineteenth-century Sweden illustrates a shift in support based on family welfare to one based on public institutions. Others, such as Gérard Béaur in his discussion of partible and impartible inheritance, do not make much effort to appropriate this new definition of welfare; instead, they emphasize the gender component by stressing how women's access to material assets was limited or reformed.

The broader idea of welfare is important. The authors stress that dependents from all strata of society relied on the support of family members in order to maintain their stations. Disparate topics are grouped under the catchy label of "welfare," though the first half of the book is about inheritance and the second primarily about guardianship and women's property rights. The expanded definition is still narrow, however, since it focuses solely on access to material assets. The book neglects other important roles that the family played in ensuring the survival of its members, such as emotional support, helping with household responsibilities, or providing education and training. The selection of essays is also curious. Seven out of the ten essays address early modern European family history, and all but one focus on Europe. Articles about the Rockefellers and Binghams in twentieth-century America and Swedish marriage rights after 1921 feel out of place.

At the same time, the breadth of the essays and their various topics make the book an interesting collection; it gives insight into family relationships by exploring how property rights were tied to the life course.