The legacy of Hull House and the Children's Bureau in the American mortality transition

The major advances in American life expectancy achieved during the twentiet h century began with the remarkable decline in infant mortality between 191 0 and 1930. Until the 1990s, explanations of this demographic event centere d on improvements in nutrition, public health, and medical science. Recent causal reappraisals emphasize the importance of changes in household-level health behaviors in reducing infant deaths, changes that are consistent wit h the maternal education campaigns engineered by Progressive Era reformers at the U.S. Children's Bureau. Through qualitative and quantitative analyse s of bureau reports and Public Use Micro Sample census data, we link the re formers' philosophy and science to new evidence and conclusions about early improvements in infant survival.