Global Spread of Fertility Decline

Population, Fear, and Uncertainty

Winter Jay, Teitelbaum Michael S.

The world's population has grown by five billion people over the past century, an astounding 300 percent increase. Yet it is actually the decline in family size and population growth that is the issue attracting greatest concern in many countries. This eye-opening book looks at demographic trends in Europe, North America, and Asia – areas that now have low fertility rates – and argues that there is an essential yet often neglected political dimension to a full assessment of these trends. Political decisions that promote or discourage marriage and childbearing, facilitate or discourage contraception and abortion, and stimulate or restrain immigration all have played significant roles in recent trends.

About the Author

Jay Winter is the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale. He is the author of "Dreams of Peace and Freedom" and "Remembering War", and co-editor of "The Great War and the Twentieth Century".

Michael Teitelbaum is a senior adviser at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York and Wertheim Fellow at Harvard Law School. He is the author of "The British Fertility Decline" and co-author of "Political Demography, Demographic Engineering".

Together, Winter and Teitelbaum have co-authored two previous books: "The Fear of Population Decline" and "A Question of Numbers: High Migration, Low Fertility, and National Identity". "Population, Fear, and Uncertainty" is the third in their series of books on population change in historical perspective.

Reviews

"Interesting, informative and timely... fascinating reading, covering diverse settings with special attention to fertility and international migration" – Joseph Chamie, Director of Research, Center for Migration Studies

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