First published in 1978, this multi-disciplinary study embraces a wide selection of topics ranging from family intimacy and authoritarianism to the family as a unit for launching social reforms. Subjects treated in the nine essays include the Victorian attitude to childbirth, the role of the nanny, the power of the upper-class paterfamilias, the pattern of family work and fertility, and incest among the Victorian working classes. The book is introduced by a critical survey of the state of family history and the need for new studies.

From the essays, the Victorian family emerges as both a refuge from society and a springboard into it, and as an important unit for the study of the repression and exploitation of women and children in Victorian society.

This book will be of interest to those studying Victorian history and society.