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Agendas for the Historical Study of Loneliness and Lone Living
Abstract
This article opens up approaches and themes for a history of loneliness. It advocates handling of the subject by historians, and invites historical analysis of concepts, health issues, strategies from the past, theories of long-term loneliness change, „nuclear family hardship‟ and related demography. Topographies of isolation are raised. It then discusses one aspect of this: considering how living alone often seems to shape modern discussion of loneliness, and analysing the steep rise of sole living in Western societies over the past century.
Keywords: Ageing, aloneness, individualism, isolation, loneliness, nuclear family, solitaries, singletons, the elderly, welfare.
