Roman runes: The ancient roots of the nuclear family

When it was coined in 1924, the term signalled modernity, but the format has roots in Ancient Rome. See how the tiny unit has changed shape, and shaped us.

So much can change in a century.

When it was coined in 1924, the term “nuclear family” signalled modernity. It indicated a man, a woman and their child or children, living lives of relative urban independence. The term itself drew on the latest in cutting-edge science — the splitting of the atom; “nuclear family”, in fact, predates “nuclear bomb” by about two decades.

By the 1950s, it had come to be seen as the family format that “inculcated the liberal,