Agricultural Neighbor Labor, Family Labor, and Kinship in the United States 1790-1940
Relieved of These Little Chores: Agricultural Neighbor Labor, Family Labor, and Kinship in the United States 1790-1940 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Matt Andrew Nelson IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Steven Ruggles, Adviser August 2018 Matt Nelson 2018 Acknowledgments The encouragement and feedback from my committee, both during the dissertation writing but also in class proved invaluable. None of this would have been possible without my advisor Steven Ruggles. He not only taught me to be a little more forthright in my arguments and pay attention to what I am trying to measure, but also gave me a job as a graduate student at the Minnesota Population Center which pushed me down the track of demographic history. Evan Roberts and David Hacker provided wonderful feedback along the way (and even cited me in some of their presentations!) and gave me advice on how to sharpen my arguments and focus on the narrative. Deborah Levison encouraged me to always consider the “devil’s advocate” argument in “Population Methods and Issues for the United States and Third World,” and Chris Isett taught me to appreciate the “necessary but insufficient” arguments in “Comparative Economic History.” None of my work would have been possible without the Minnesota Population Center and IPUMS, both in the data created, but also funding conference travel, providing a graduate assistantship, and eventually employment. Cathy Fitch, Sarah Flood, Ron Goeken, Miriam King, and Sula Sarkar all gave me reading suggestions, conference paper feedback, or technical tips and tricks in SPSS, Stata, and ArcGIS.
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