Hendrik Hartog, "Quantum Meruit and Old Age Care in American Family Life"

This Fulton Lecture in Legal History, recorded May 5, 2011, draws from Professor Hartog's forthcoming book, Someday All This Will Be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age. It uses transcripts from a series of late nineteenth and early twentieth century New Jersey cases to explore the problem of who should be paid for household work and for intimate caretaking. The transcripts reveal both intimate details of family life and some of the political and ethical dilemmas that attended to the situations of adult children in a mobile and free society.