Reviews the literature on the demographic transition, includes analysis in light of “decadal,” “millennial,” and “centennial” scales.

Four Errors in past theories:
1) Assuming that all transitions have the same cause.
2) Ignoring mortality decline as a precondition of fertility decline. The work of PEFP on France was anomolous.
3) Assuming that the regulation of fertility is fundamentally different in pretransitional and posttransitional populations. People always can think about how many kids they have, even if it’s “up to God.”
4) Focusing on a decadal time scale - these things take time.

She develops her on complex model of how societies achieve a fertility decline. The model is contingent and allows for the interaction of a variety of factors: exogenous influence, preexisting conditions, important changes, social interaction and influence, and a group of perceptions. (Detailed and diagrammed on p. 450)