Another strong motivation was to cross disciplinary boundaries, to combine demographic, economic, social, and cultural history - hence the book's publication in the series Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time . Finally, as the research developed, I became aware of very exciting possibilities of combining the rich material in the local census returns with parish family reconstitutions. Microhistories can be read as an extended demonstration of these potentials. One of the repercussions of writing a book which cuts across so many specific areas of specialisation is the inevitability of fragmented response. Hinde's lengthy introduction, setting out the parallel fields of social and demographic history, captures the sort of divisions my book aimed to cross.
Rural History is a likely placement if the subject is rural.
Continuity and Change specifically caters for the very problem I have been outlining. But it could be said that Continuity and Change is the exception that proves the rule. If we turn to individual historians, David Levine is one of the few who has managed to be taken seriously by the harder representatives of the two constituencies. I raise this issue because I think that it helps to counter one of the reviewer's criticisms of the book. Hinde therefore misses the point of Chapter 2 when he describes it as itself demonstrating the weaknesses of conventional demographic history by refusing to engage with the motivations underlying family limitation.