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Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem Paperback – January 5, 1996

by David Blankenhorn (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 41 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 5, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006092683X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060926830
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Necessary Antidote to Liberal Male-Bashing
By A Customer on May 27, 1999
Format: Paperback
I am aware that you discourage people from commenting on other reviews, but I think that the following comment is needed nevertheless. A previously posted hostile review said "Just where does David Blankenhorn get off telling mothers that they're not good enough for their kids!!!???? It looks as if David here is stuck in a time warp and the people that believe this piece of trash are too. So...almost half of kids grow up with single moms. I think it's swell that women today have more choices than ever before." This reviewer clearly doesn't grasp the message of the book. First, Blankenhorn isn't saying that mothers aren't good enough for their kids. On the contrary, a careful reading of the book reveals that he believes that good mothers are just as necessary as fathers. He is not denigrating mothers. He is simply saying that neither mother nor father possesses the resources to give a child everything that the child needs. Parenting was meant to be a cooperative effort between a team consisting of husband and wife, each of whom brings unique personal qualities (some of which are gender-related) to the endeavor. It's not sexist to argue that this is the case; on the contrary, it is extremely sexist to argue that women are the only parents who are essential to healthy childhood development. As for the argument that those who agree with the author are in a "time warp," this is nothing but an unintelligent ad hominem attack designed to divert attention from the legitimate substance of the book. Just because one is dismayed by the increasing number of fatherless children, and the undeniably negative effects of that phenomenon on society, it does not make one a Luddite who wishes to return to the past.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe truth about fathers
By Bill Muehlenberg VINE VOICE on February 5, 2005
Format: Paperback
The breakdown of families, especially in terms of the disappearance of marriage and the collapse of fatherhood, has been carefully studied by a number of authors. One of the most incisive examinations of the problem of fatherless families is Fatherless America.

The book is based on a wealth of statistical information, highlighting the dangerous trend of family disintegration in America. Perhaps most disturbing of the information he uncovers is the fact that "tonight, about 40 per cent of American children will go to sleep in homes in which their fathers do not live". "Fatherlessness," argues Blankenhorn, "is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation". The primary results of this trend are "a decline in children's well-being and a rise in male violence, especially against women."

The problem is not just that of the absence of fathers, but "the absence of our belief in fathers." Recalling the findings of Margaret Mead and others that the supreme test of any civilisation is whether it can socialise men by teaching them to be fathers, Blankenhorn traces the disappearance of the idea of fatherhood in contemporary culture, and the effects this has on our children and our society

While he acknowledges that the so-called traditional family was not without problems, he sees the move to a fatherless society as a far greater dilemma. As fatherhood becomes devalued, decultured and deinstitutionalised, the problems associated with inner city America will only compound themselves. We now know without question that the overwhelming generator of violence among young men is the fatherless family.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA thorough analysis. . . .is an excellent resource
By Kathryn Warner on April 11, 2002
Format: Paperback
Blankenhorn has written a thorough analysis of fatherlessness in our American culture. Not only is it an excellent resource for anyone in the helping profession, including mental health professionals, but also it will help those who are fatherless.
Blankenhorn confronts not so much the absences of fathers as the absence of our belief in fathers (3). As he describes this, "today's expert story of fatherhood largely assumes that fatherhood is superfluous. More precisely, our elite culture has now fully incorporated into its prevailing family narrative the idea that fatherhood, as a distinctive social role for men, is either unnecessary or undesirable. An essential claim of the script is that there are not-and ought not to be-any key parental tasks that belong essentially and primarily to fathers" (67).
Blankenhorn uses the format of a screenplay with eight characters in the script. The leading characters are the Unnecessary Father, the Old Father, and the New Father. The remaining five minor roles are termed as the fatherhood understudies or almost-fathers. They include the Deadbeat Dad, the Visiting Father, the Sperm Father, the Stepfather and the Nearby Guy. Although the first three are biological fathers, they do not live with their children. The latter two are not biological, so they exemplify the contemporary dispersal of fatherhood: the growing detachment of social from biological paternity" (68). In the last scene Blankenhorn introduces the Good Family Man.
Blankenhorn's Unnecessary Father is not needed inspires condescension, a is easily dismissed and forgotten (84). Old Father is destructive, overbearing man whereas the New Father is a good, nurturing man expressing his emotions and deeply involved as a parent (96).Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWake up America.

iT WAS A WAKE UP CALL FOR ME.

Published 2 months ago by david hitchcock
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Very good shape

Published 2 months ago by Peter K Asiamah
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Little difficult to read but great information.

Published 3 months ago by Deborah K Setzer
5.0 out of 5 starsInteresting information about our fatherless society

Interesting information about our fatherless society

Published 3 months ago by LawyerLady
5.0 out of 5 starsA CRITIQUE OF THE GROWING “CULTURE OF FATHERLESSNESS” IN OUR SOCIETY

David Blankenhorn (born 1955) is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, and co-director of The Marriage Opportunity Council; he has also... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Steven H Propp
5.0 out of 5 starsA CRITIQUE OF THE GROWING “CULTURE OF FATHERLESSNESS” IN OUR SOCIETY

David Blankenhorn (born 1955) is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, and co-director of The Marriage Opportunity Council; he has also... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Steven H Propp
5.0 out of 5 starsA CRITIQUE OF THE GROWING “CULTURE OF FATHERLESSNESS” IN OUR SOCIETY

David Blankenhorn (born 1955) is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, and co-director of The Marriage Opportunity Council; he has also... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Steven H Propp
5.0 out of 5 starsWhy our children have been short changed (especially boys) and why...

This a fantastic eye opening examination of the reasons our children (especially boys) have been shortchanged . This book is an early printing. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Scalamonga
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Fathers are still essential to a functioning family and culture.

Published 9 months ago by Kelly Carroll
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

David Blankenhorn makes a compelling case for fathers place in the home.

Published 13 months ago by KT

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