Birth control in an era of natural fertility: the heritage of Dioscorides • Etienne van de Walle, University of Pennsylvania

Are deliberate birth spacing effects in fact statistical and bio-demographic artefacts? A critical study with data from the Netherlands • Jan Van Bavel, Leuven University ; Jan Kok, International Institute of Social History

Deliberate control in a natural fertility population: southern Sweden 1766-1865 • Tommy Bengtsson, Lund University ; Martin Dribe, Lund University

Deliberate fertility control in late imperial China: spacing and stopping in the Qing Imperial Lineage • Cameron D. Campbell, University of California, Los Angeles ; James Lee, University of Michigan

Is the fertility transition also a ‘phase transition’? A closer look at historical evidence from the U.S. and Ireland • Paul A. David, Stanford University ; Warren C. Sanderson, International Institute for Applied System Analysis