The new Routledge History of Poverty, c. 1450-1800 provides neither a "history" nor a coherent concept of "poverty" and rests on an inappropriate time scale. However, a closer discussion of these flaws enables a more consistent perspective, based on the idea that the interplay of "labour" and...

Living arrangements have changed enormously over the last two centuries. While the average American today lives in a household of only three people, in 1850 household size was twice that figure. Furthermore, both the number of children and the number of adults in a household have fallen...