American Families: A Multicultural Reader [Paperback]

Stephanie Coontz (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415915740 | ISBN-13: 978-0415915748 | Publication Date: November 4, 1998 | Edition: 1

Is the traditional American family under attack? This reader testifies to the extraordinary diversity of American families, revealing the recent family values debate as a denial of this diversity. Paying special attention to variations of class, race and ethnicity, the contributors highlight the larger social factors and dynamics of family change. These articles provide a variety of perspectives that nonetheless point to a common theme: families in America have always been diverse and have always been in flux. They expose the myth of family homogeneity, showing that the "modern" family - male breadwinner and female homemaker, with the kids at home or school - only became a reality for most Americans in the 1920s, and that it peaked in the 1950s. Case studies demonstrate the existence of competing or co-existing family types, with different family, gender and parenting arrangements. These articles describe a wide variety of family forms and values that have worked in different times and places for different population groups. Other articles shed light on the psychological and socioeconomic factors that affect the family. Drawing on historical, anthropological and psychological research, "American Families" provides an overview of the theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding the family. It also considers both the political and practical implications of viewing family life through the lens of multiculturalism. Ultimately, any system of family studies founded on the premise that there is only a single family tradition and ideal in America for all circumstances and segments of society will inevitably fail to meet the needs of many families. As family forms change, so too must our legal and emotional definitions of the family.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book, which arose from the demands of Coontz's family history course at Evergreen State College, continues the project Coontz ably began in four previous monographs (most recently, The Way We Really Are, LJ 4/1/97). The 29 chapters have been multifariously culled, many excerpted from books, with the aim of showing varieties of family life when factors of race, class, gender, locale, and different historical periods are considered independently. There are, for instance, chapters about African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Filipinas, Vietnamese, Chinese, immigrants, lesbians, motherhood, the poor, teenage mothers, and class consciousness in various times and places. There are no articles about middle- or upper-class families or those of northern European origin. Some of the authors are well known (e.g., W.J. Wilson, Thomas J. Sugrue), while others are newcomers. With nothing quite like it in its breadth of treatment, this is an excellent resource for college students or the engaged reader looking for a scholarly introduction.?Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

With nothing quite like it in its breadth of treatment, this is an excellent resource for college students or the engaged reader looking for a scholarly introduction.
–Library Journal, Feb 1999

With nothing quite like it in its breadth of treatment, this is an excellent resource for college students or the engaged reader looking for a scholarly introduction.
–Library Journal, 2/99

At last, a book that replaces unrealistic idealization of 'The Family' with the many faces of real families in the real world! Accessibly written and full of important data, this is the best single-volume guide I know to the way we live now.
–Katha Pollitt

An extraordinary, wide-ranging collection of essays illuminating the variation in American families. It should move the current debates on family values to a higher plane.
–Donna L. Franklin, author of Ensuring Inequality: The Structural Transformation of the African-American Family

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415915740
• ISBN-13: 978-0415915748
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,889,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reader, August 9, 2006

By 

SDavisson "SDavisson" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Families: A Multicultural Reader (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for students of sociology, family history, human development or other fields that explore family life as it exists in our world today.
I especially appreciate how the author expands the reader's understanding of family forms from the common view of The Family as a mother/father, white, middle class, with two children "Ozzie and Harriot" stereotype to a more realistic understanding of the complexities of families in this country. I enjoyed reading stories that revealed how the factors of race, class, and gender effect families in our society. I also appreciated the inclusion of family stories that reveal the impact of historical contexts. For example, the stories from immigrants reveal how our society has historically valued labor as a means for profit over labor as a means to support families.
I didn't find the text to be overly academic, but rather fascinating, accessible and informative.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good...but still very academic, June 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: American Families: A Multicultural Reader (Paperback)

This really is an excellent book, full of really clear and well-organized information on some very important, often over-looked issues in sociology and family development issues. But I still found it a little too academic-oriented. Am looking for something more accessible to not-well-educated people I work with in my job, families who are not readers. Stories and content are useful to me, however, in a big way, as both a community-based worker and as a serious student of these types of "non-traditional" but very current issues. I appreciated the book alot, but it still isn't quite "earthy" enough to use with non-academically-oriented clients...other than via me telling them some of the real life "stories" encountered in the book. I give it three stars and wait for a second edition!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good...but still very academic, June 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: American Families: A Multicultural Reader (Paperback)

This really is an excellent book, full of really clear and well-organized information on some very important, often over-looked issues in sociology and family development issues. But I still found it a little too academic-oriented. Am looking for something more accessible to not-well-educated people I work with in my job, families who are not readers. Stories and content are useful to me, however, in a big way, as both a community-based worker and as a serious student of these types of "non-traditional" but very current issues. I appreciated the book alot, but it still isn't quite "earthy" enough to use with non-academically-oriented clients...other than via me telling them some of the real life "stories" encountered in the book. I give it three stars and wait for a second edition!