Why do people rebel? This is one of the most important questions
historians and social scientists have been grappling with over the
years. It is a question to which no satisfactory answer has been found,
despite more than a century of research. However, in most cases the
research has focused on what people do if they rebel but hardly ever,
why they rebel.
The essays in this volume offer an alternative perspective, based on the
question at what point families decided to add collective action to
their repertoires of survival strategies, In this way this volume opens
up a promising new field of historical research: the intersection of
labour and family history. The authors offer fascinating case studies in
several countries spanning over four continents during the last two
centuries. In an extensive introduction the relevant literature on
households and collective action is discussed, and the volume is rounded
off by a conclusion that provides methodological and theoretical
suggestions for the further exploration of this new field in social
history.