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This comprehensive work examines the latest developments in thegrowing field of household demography focusing on household analysisand modeling. Chapters examine the full range of stages in householdprojection-including data collection, data analysis, andselection of a projection model. Complete with numerousillustrations, this book is practical rather than conceptual with itsexploration of existing models and concrete applications. Topicsinclude historical trends, theories of household formation anddissolution, event-history analysis, multistate models, housingmarket models, labor market models and much more. ... Read more

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This large-scale comparative endeavor, complete in two volumes, reflects increasing concern with the population factor in economic and social change worldwide. Demographers, on their side, have been focusing on history. In response to this, Population in History represents the work of two practitioners that have begun to work together, using their combined approaches in an attempt to assess and account for population growth experienced by the West since the seventeenth century.There is a long record of interest in the history of population. But the interest now displayed is likely to be both more persistent and far more fruitful in its consequences. New studies have been initiated in many countries. And because the studies are more informed and systematic than many of those of earlier periods, they are already provoking the further spread of research. A much more positive part is now also being played by national and international associations of historians and demographers. It is not unlikely that, within the next fifteen or twenty years, the main outlines of population change in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will be firmly established for much of Europe.Previous research has tended to appear in specialist journals and academic publications. This volume is intended to provide a more easily accessible publication. It has been thought appropriate to include some earlier work, both because of its intrinsic interest and because it provided the background and part of the stimulus to the later research. Of the twenty-seven contributions to this outstanding volume, seven are unabridged reprints of earlier work; the remaining contributions are either entirely new or represent substantial revisions of work published elsewhere. ... Read more

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A comprehensive book that emphasizes the major techniques, methods, and data sources of contemporary population studies. Written by a sociologist and a demographer, the book's principal aim is to improve the students' skills primarily as consumers and secondarily as producers of demographic information. One reviewer says, "The author has a pleasant style. It is the voice of knowledge combined with a gentle voice of teaching." He goes on to say of the book, "It is really unique and refreshingly original. It is comprehensive and comprehensible." -Ron Hammond, University of Utah. The book takes an applied interdisciplinary approach, emphasizing demographic resources such as software, data sets, journals, and the Internet. For anyone interested in population studies. ... Read more

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The Graying of the Great Powers offers the first comprehensive assessment of the geopolitical implications of "global aging"--the dramatic transformation in population age structures and growth rates being brought about by falling fertility and rising longevity worldwide. It describes how demographic trends in the developed world will constrain the ability of the United States and its traditional allies to maintain national and global security in the decades ahead. It also explains how dramatic demographic change in the developing world--from resurgent youth bulges in the Islamic world to premature aging in China and population implosion in Russia--will give rise to serious new security threats. While some argue that global aging is pushing the world toward greater peace and prosperity, The Graying of the Great Powers warns that a period of great geopolitical danger looms just over the horizon. Neither the triumph of multilateralism nor democratic capitalism is assured. The demographic trends of the twenty-first century will challenge the geopolitical assumptions of both the left and the right. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heavy policy book
Good book for people interested in demographic aging, well written but VERY heavy on the policy. ... Read more

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Demography in Archaeology is a review of current theory and method in the reconstruction of populations from archaeological data. Starting with a summary of demographic concepts and methods, the book examines historical and ethnographic sources of demographic evidence before addressing the methods by which reliable demographic estimates can be made from skeletal remains, settlement evidence and modern and ancient biomolecules. Recent debates in palaeodemography are evaluated, new statistical methods for palaeodemographic reconstruction are explained, and the notion that past demographic structures and processes were substantially different from those pertaining today is critiqued. The book covers a wide span of evidence, from the evolutionary background of human demography to the influence of natural and human-induced catastrophes on population growth and survival. This is essential reading for any archaeologist or anthropologist with an interest in relating the results of field and laboratory studies to broader questions of population structure and dynamics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent book
As a PhD demographer who has had some contact with several of the subjects treated in this book, I was very pleased with it.The book is well written, divides the subject into meaningful chapters, and does a good job of presenting fundamental demographic concepts.There are a few places where the wording is a bit less than exact concerning some demographic technicalities, but this will do no real damage.In particular, I was happy to see good references to the demographic literature at the right places.All in all, this is an excellent introduction and overview of the intersection of demography and archaeology that does justice to both subjects. ... Read more

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Two distinctive approaches to the study of human demography exist within anthropology today--anthropological demography and human evolutionary ecology.Eric Roth reconciles these approaches through recognition of common research topics and the construction of a broad theoretical framework incorporating both cultural and biological motivation. ... Read more

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Population ageing has been going on for many decades, but population shrinking is a rather new phenomenon. The population of Germany, as in many other countries, has passed a plateau and is currently shrinking. Demographic change is a challenge for infrastructure planning due to the longevity of infrastructure capital and the need to match supply and demand in order to ensure cost-efficiency. This book summarises the findings of the INFRADEM project team, a multidisciplinary research group that worked together to estimate the effects of demographic change on infrastructure demand. Economists, engineers and geographers present studies from top-down and bottom-up perspectives, focusing on Germany and two selected regions: Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The contributors employed a broad range of methods, including an overlapping-generations model for Germany, regional input-output models, an energy systems model, and a spatial model of the transportation infrastructure. ... Read more

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This work is designed to introduce ancient historians to demographic perspectives. It includes four case studies that illustrate a variety of different approaches to the study of ancient population history. Issues addressed include the seasonal patterns of fertility and population pressure. ... Read more

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Scheidel and Saller's Simplistic Suppositions
Walter Scheidel has put together a well researched and erudite text on Roman demography, featuring work by some of the field's most eminent scholars; however, the endorsement by the pre-eminent Roman demographer in America of the erroneous thesis of Richard Saller (Patriarchy, Property & Death, Cambridge University Press, 1994), who is featured in this book, and Brent Shaw- that Roman males married on average at twenty-eight and females at age nineteen - is disappointing.As has been shown in The Age of Marriage in Ancient Rome (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003), the ages at first marriages of Latin speakers were actually between fifteen and nineteen for males, twelve and sixteen for females:as almost everyone had assumed before Saller began to analyze dedications on epitaphs in 1983.(see:Friedlander, Ludwig.Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in der Zeit von Augustus bis zum Ausgang der Antonine.10th ed., 4 vols.Leipzig, 1922.)

What the epitaphs actually show is that by twenty-eight most husbands had in fact lost their fathers, who always commemorated sons as long as they could, with the result that their wives thereafter became their principal commemorators.Likewise by nineteen most wives had living children, so that their husbands, who therefore got to keep the dowry, overtook their wives' fathers as commemorators.Scheidel has challenged anyone disputing Saller's assertion to prove his claim, stating that the burden of proof rests on his shoulders, rather than on Saller's.Why should this be the case - whatever modern fertility transition theory argues - when it is Saller who has made the revisionist claims against the accepted demographic interpretation? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good book on demographic methodology
As far as topics goes this book is not much different than those of more modern books on demographic methodology such as Preston's Demography: Measuring and Modelling Population Processes and Hinde's Demographic Methods.
However it is Very different in terms on the mathematical rigor used.

This book explains the same methods as the other two books but with much more mathematical detail, another positive characteristic is that the layout or structuring of it is much better than the above two books.

The pre-requisites for this book are just basic algebra, calculus and statistics. For example, you should know what an integral and a matrix is.

The structure of this book is much clearer than the above books I mentioned, it is aimed at practical users while providing extensive mathematical detail with proofs. What is unique is that each new formula introduced has at least one example of it and is followed by the solution to it, most have two examples for each formula.
What you get in this book is a mathematically clear presentation of demographic measurement tools.

I decided to buy this book because I was disappointed with the lack of clarity in books such as Hinde's, and I wanted a book that could show me with clear mathematical detail how to interpret,use and understand each measurement.
This book met my expectations, and I would recommend it to those who want a clear and yet detailed mathematical explanations of demographic methods.

The Content of the book is:
1. Data: sources and errors
2. Measures of mortality and fertility
3. The Life Table
4. Construction of life tables from census data
5. Stationary population theory
6. Stable population theory
7. Population projections
8. Uses of census data

An important update from the 2nd edition (1993) is that chapter 7 now includes a section on dynamic population projection methods, the lack of them in the previous editions was one of the major complaints from academics. ... Read more

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This four-volume collection of over 140 original chapters covers virtually everything of interest to demographers, sociologists, and others. Over 100 authors present population subjects in ways that provoke thinking and lead to the creation of new perspectives, not just facts and equations to be memorized. The articles follow a theory-methods-applications approach and so offer a kind of "one-stop shop" that is well suited for students and professors who need non-technical summaries, such as political scientists, public affairs specialists, and others. Unlike shorter handbooks, Demography:Analysis and Synthesis offers a long overdue, thorough treatment of the field.

Choosing the analytical method that fits the data and the situation requires insights that the authors and editors of Demography:Analysis and Synthesis have explored and developed. This extended examination of demographic tools not only seeks to explain the analytical tools themselves, but also the relationships between general population dynamics and their natural, economic, social, political, and cultural environments. Limiting themselves to human populations only, the authors and editors cover subjects that range from the core building blocks of population change--fertility, mortality, and migration--to the consequences of demographic changes in the biological and health fields, population theories and doctrines, observation systems, and the teaching of demography. The international perspectives brought to these subjects is vital for those who want an unbiased, rounded overview of these complex, multifaceted subjects.

Topics to be covered:
* Population Dynamics and the Relationship Between Population Growth and Structure
* The Determinants of Fertility
* The Determinants of Mortality
* The Determinants of Migration
* Historical and Geographical Determinants of Population
* The Effects of Population on Health, Economics, Culture, and the Environment
* Population Policies
* Data Collection Methods and Teaching about Population Studies

* All chapters share a common format
* Each chapter features several cross-references to other chapters
* Tables, charts, and other non-text features are widespread
* Each chapter contains at least 30 bibliographic citations ... Read more

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The Ache, whose life history Hill and Hurtado recount, are a small, indigenous population of hunters and gatherers living in the neotropical rainforest of eastern Paraguay. Contact of Ache with outsiders, including other Indian groups, has been infrequent and hostile during the 400 years since the first arrival of the Spanish. The authors have gained their confidence over more than a decade in the field. Both in terms of access to Ache informants and in field data, their research is unique. ... Read more

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Summary: Demography in Transition: Emerging Trends in Population StudiesThe discipline of demography, much like the population processes which comprise its focus, changes theoretically, methodologically, and substantively as the world s populations respond to internal and external forces.These disciplinary shifts are often identified and examined by demographers in academic journals and at annual population studies conferences.Demography in Transition is a compilation of seven studies presented by demographers at the Southwestern Sociological Association s 2005 Annual Meeting.The works selected for this volume provide unique insight into complex demographic issues, as well as highlight many of the growing foci in the discipline.Summary: Demography in Transition: Emerging Trends in Population StudiesThe discipline of demography, much like the population processes which comprise its focus, changes theoretically, methodologically, and substantively as the world s populations respond to internal and external forces.These disciplinary shifts are often identified and examined by demographers in academic journals and at annual population studies conferences.Demography in Transition is a compilation of seven studies presented by demographers at the Southwestern Sociological Association s 2005 Annual Meeting.The works selected for this volume provide unique insight into complex demographic issues, as well as highlight many of the growing foci in the discipline.There has been a movement in demographic research towards focusing on understanding population processes for more heterogeneous, rather than homogenous, populations.This movement has resulted in an increase in research concentrating on outcomes dependent on gender, race, and ethnicity.Changes in population structures within the United States have resulted in another notable disciplinary focus.Aging populations, altering family structures, and a rise in Asian and Latino immigration to the U.S. have all attributed to novel areas of research for demographers.These timely issues, and their intersections, are central to the research explored in the chapters contained in this volume.In their chapters, these demographers examine the manner in which race and ethnicity affect access to heath care; the consequences and concerns associated with an aging population; the factors affecting Asian migration patterns; and the demographic implications of changing family structures.These chapters provide a glimpse into the current insights provided by demographic research, as well as directions for its future. ... Read more

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Human Demography and Disease offers an interdisciplinary and integrated perspective on the relationship between historical populations and the dynamics of epidemiological processes. It brings the techniques of time-series analysis and computer matrix modeling to historical demography and geography to extract detailed information concerning the oscillations in births, deaths, migrations and epidemics. This book presents a new way of studying preindustrial communities and explores the subtle, and hitherto undetected effects of fluctuating nutritional levels on mortality patterns and the dynamics of infectious diseases. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

What was the population of ancient greece?
I have always been fascinated by ancient history, but not by the personal lives of the emperors and the elite, but by the social and economic processes that governed the lives of the common people. Most books of ancient history are about the former, while I am interested about the latter.

This books provides information not only about the demographic structure of the ancient Greek civilization, but also about their society, economy and institutions. For example, median house size in the ancient hellas in the 4th century BCE was 240 square meters (based on a sample of 300 houses), larger than the average house size in the US today! Also, the book help to demolish persistent myths about the nature of the ancient economy as one driven not by modern market forces, demonstrating that the population of mainland Greece was 40 to 60% larger than the carrying capacity of the land, with implies that a large proportion of food consumed in ancient Greece was imported through markets, in international trade of bulk commodities. And the books demonstrates the high rate of urbanization of the ancient polis, with points out to a remarkably developed society.

Highly recommended. ... Read more