pt. I. Initial conditions : 1. Overview: Introduction, Human origins, The 40000 years to 10000 BC, The last 12000 years, A few fundamentals of population growth, The quality and quantity of life, The English parson, Thomas Malthus, Measurement and inference, Censuses, Models of human behavior ; 2. The historical setting: Introduction, The demographic transition, Structural transition of the economy, Long-run changes in economic well-being, Net replacement, Dependency and participation, How does the demographic transition end or does it?, Variation, Globalization, macroeconomics and population, Institutional change and externalities

pt. II. Growth and dispersal of the human population : 3. Mortality: the fourth horseman: What do people die from?, Infant and child mortality, The probability of death and life expectancy, Seasonal pattern of death, Seasonality and longevity, Urban mortality, The mortality transition: crude death rates ; 4. The fertility transition: The fertility transition, The Queen and the Anabaptists, Strategic choice, When to marry, The "never married", Illegitimacy, The seasonal pattern of birth, Disruptions, The fertility transition: crude birth rates, Farms and towns ; 5. Long distance migration: The migratory instinct, Who's in and who's out, Migration of the unfree, The Atlantic: waves of immigration, Unbalanced cargoes, Information and advertising, Remittances: then and now, There and back again: reverse migrations, Diaspora, The barriers go up, The Walker Thesis: displacement and savings, A final word on ong distance migration; 6. Regional migration: Introduction, The US westward movement and other frontiers, Urbanization and industrial change, The rural-urban shift, Town and farm and the changing economic role of children, The great Black migration in the US, Declining regions: dust bowls and Yorkshire coal mines, Inter-urban migration, Migration: in the neighborhood, The undocumented, Convergence

pt. III. Choices and their consequences : The changing family: Introduction, Courtship and marriage, Household and family size, Child labor, Family connections: networks, Marital dissolution, Married women's property, Poverty: one-parent families and elderly females ; 8. Health and well-being: Introduction, Glasgow: then and now, Morbidity, Early populations and nutrition, Birth weights, The Human Development Index, Obesity and the BMI, Household space, Health and hospital care systems ; 9. Macroeconomic effects of the industrial transition: Introduction, Shocks and echoes: the baby boom, Children and the saving shift, Intergenerational contracts or life cycles: pensions, The work-leisure choice, Time spent in household work, Education and human capital ; 10. Population catastrophes: The nature of catastrophes, The Greenland Norse and the Easter Islanders, North American Native Indians, Famine, We all fall down! Plague, The HIV/AIDS pandemic, When, not if? But not now! Flu pandemics

pt. IV. Conclusions : 11. Concluding remarks.