Commentary on Reading History Sideways

Book Reviews

John Caldwell, Australia National University

“The product of great scholarship.”

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Tim Futing Liao, University of Illinois

“A superb piece of serious scholarship and an intellectual tour de force that deserves to be on the desk of….all social scientists….interested in societal change.”

Contemporary Sociology – A Journal of Reviews

Susannah Ottaway, Carleton College

“This is an intriguing work….Historians of the family will benefit by engaging with Thornton’s sweeping theories, even if these theories will require serious revision in the light of more rigorous historical analysis.”

American Historical Review

Rebecca Jane Probert, Warwick School of Law, UK

“An ambitious work that stimulates, even if it does not always convince.”

International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family

Michele Rivkin-Fish, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“His impressive study promises to reorient population research in important new directions.”

Current Anthropology

Daniel Scott Smith, University of Illinois at Chicago

“Hardly novel to criticize modernization and other frameworks of unilinear social evolution.”

International Review of Social History

Silvia Sovic, University of London

“A much needed book about powerful conceptual frameworks that have been profoundly influential for centuries….should be compulsory reading for any scholar working on families.”

Population Studies

Etienne van de Walle, University of Pennsylvania

“The argument is provocative, systematic, and cogent…. and [the book] is likely to be an important and influential contribution to family sociology.”

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Exchange with Steven Ruggles

The Reading History Sideways book was the focus of an “Author Meets Critics” session at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association (SSHA).  The session was organized and chaired by Myron Gutmann (University of Michigan), with Katherine Lynch (Carnegie Mellon University), Steven Ruggles (University of Minnesota), and Etienne van de Walle (University of Pennsylvania) participating as discussants. Richard Smith (Cambridge University) was originally scheduled to be a fourth discussant, but was not able to attend.

At the SSHA session, Steven Ruggles presented a critique of the book, much of which was later published as a 2006 book review in Population and Development Review.  Arland Thornton released a working paper in January 2006 that responded to Ruggles’ critique. The two then made further exchanges on the history of living arrangements, early scholars’ methods, and other aspects of the Reading History Sideways book.

Materials they publicly shared on their websites during this exchange are posted here:

1. November 2005: Steven Ruggles’ slide handout originally given out at the SSHA “Author Meets Critics” session

• January 2006: Arland Thornton’s response to the original critique

• February 2006: Steven Ruggles’ reply

• March 2006: Arland Thornton’s reply

• March 2006: Steven Ruggles’ response

• April 2006: Arland Thornton’s final update including his March reply