Abstract: | Let be a family of connected graphs. A graph G is said to be ‐free if G is H‐free for every graph H in . We study the relation between forbidden subgraphs in a connected graph G and the resulting toughness of G. In particular, we consider the problem of characterizing the graph families such that every large enough connected ‐free graph is t‐tough. In this article, we solve this problem for every real positive number t. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Graph Theory 73: 191–202, 2013 |