Challenging the conventional view that the family is a coherent institution, this work argues that sociologists and anthropologists should concentrate on the study of human reproduction. Robertson's view is that looking back on the pre-industrial world can help us understand people's dependence on such institutions as banks, schools, factories, clinics and others. It can also increase awareness of how human experience of industrialism has biased people's thinking about family life. The book pursues the idea that in order to understand and perhaps influence key issues of modern life - gender and generation gaps, economic and political implications of increased longevity - people need to readdress the role of the family, ignoring emotional prejudices, and assemble new interpretations of the social organization of reproduction.