An approach to historical demography and family history through a life course

This article offers an overview of the history of historical demography and family history, from their golden age in the mid-20th century to the present day. We favor micro-level approaches applied to individual data. The first part revisits the resounding success of family reconstruction and household typology, and highlights the crisis of the 1980s. The main response was the emergence of the life course approach, which played a decisive role in the long-awaited integration of historical demography and family history. To illustrate the development of the life course, to flesh out and humanize this history, we follow the scientific trajectory of an individual, a craftsman, from his apprenticeship to his mastery. He is referred to by his initials, JK. We examine the evolution of his publications and interests, and analyze his involvement in social science history, both as part of a broader scientific dynamic and as a reflection of his own actions. This give us the opportunity to reflect on some topics and concepts that have played an important role in the development of historical family demography, and its transformation of historical demography into a social science like the other. The article concludes with some reflections on the current state of the field, which shows promising developments but also gives cause for concern.