The Family.

Most American families in the 1900s were large by the standards of the late twentieth century, but their size was already diminishing. The birthrate in the United States in 1900 was 32.3 births per thousand people. A century earlier it had been 55 births per thousand people. The average number of children per family was 3.56. Poorer families tended to have more children, since they often needed the income their offspring could provide. Life expectancy was low, and it varied significantly by class, race, and sex. The life expectancy for white women in 1900 was 48.7 years; for nonwhite women it was 33.5 years. For white men in that year the average life expectancy was 46.6 years, compared to 32.5 years for nonwhite men. Short life expectancy and high infant mortality meant that many families had to cope with the loss of a child or a parent. For the average working...