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History General

Household Counts

Canadian Households and Families in 1901

edited by Peter Baskerville & Eric W. Sager

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2007
Category
General, Public Affairs & Administration, Demography
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802038609
    Publish Date
    Apr 2007
    List Price
    $126.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802038029
    Publish Date
    Apr 2007
    List Price
    $68.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442684430
    Publish Date
    Dec 2006
    List Price
    $126.00

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Description

The Canadian census taken in 1901 has surprising things to say about the family as a social grouping and cultural construct at the turn of the twentieth century. Although the nuclear-family household was the most frequent type of household, family was not a singular form or structure at all; rather, it was a fluid micro-social community through which people lived and moved. There was no one "traditional" family, but rather many types of families and households, each with its own history.

In Household Counts, editors Eric W. Sager and Peter Baskerville bring together an impressive array of scholars to explore the demographic context of families in Canada using the 1901 census. Split into five sections, the collection covers such topics as family demography, urban families, the young and old, family and social history, and smaller groups as well. The remarkable plasticity of family and household that Household Counts reveals is of critical importance to our understanding of nation-building in Canada. This collection not only makes an important contribution to family history, but also to the widening intellectual exploration of historical censuses.

About the authors

One of Canada's leading business social scientists, Peter Baskerville is professor of history, University of Victoria, in-coming chair of Modern Western Canadian History, University of Alberta, and the author of several books, including, with Eric Sager, Unwilling Idlers: The Urban Unemployed and Their Families in Late Victorian Canada.

Peter Baskerville's profile page

Eric W. Sager is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Victoria and author of Seafaring Labour: The Merchant Marine of Atlantic Canada, 1820–1914.

Eric W. Sager's profile page