American Families: A Multicultural Reader - Softcover

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9780415915748: American Families: A Multicultural Reader

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415915740 ISBN 13: 9780415915748

Publisher: Routledge, 1998

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.

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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

From the Publisher:

For Release: January 19, 1999
"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, Associate Editor, The Nation and author of Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism

AMERICAN FAMILIES A Multicultural Reader EDITED BY, STEPHANIE COONTZ With Maya Parson and Gabrielle Raley

AMERICAN FAMILIES: A Multicultural Reader (Routledge; January 19, 1999; A Trade Paperback Original), edited by Stephanie Coontz, testifies to the extraordinary historical and contemporary diversity of families in the United States.

A wide variety of family forms and values have worked - and not worked - for different people at different times. The family values debate, Stephanie Coontz argues, is largely based on false assumptions about what family status in America has been and what it should be. The articles here elaborate on this common theme: The myth of the homogenous family has not merely excluded some groups. It has deformed our understanding of all families. The book opens with a review of the recent debate over families, demonstrating how much of it is really a discussion (or denial) of diversity. Concrete case studies describe the existence of a wide array of family forms and values, gender roles, and parenting practices that have prevailed under distinct circumstances and in dissimilar situations. Paying special attention to the intersections and cross-currents of class, race, and ethnicity, as well as their differential impact on gender, sexuality, and personal identity, the contributors highlight the forces that affect the organization and internal dynamics of family life.

Drawing on historical, sociological, anthropological, and psychological research and considering the family life through the lens of multiculturalism, AMERICAN FAMILIES provides an overview of the issues involved in studying the variations and interactions among different, constantly changing families. America is experiencing a major redistribution of jobs, population, income, and gender roles, as well as a polarization in access to technology and secure working conditions. In light of these and other changes that pose new challenges to families, Stephanie Coontz and the contributors to this book rethink the support systems and guidelines offered to families as they try to prepare themselves for the 21st century.

CONTRIBUTORS: David Wallace Adams, Tamara Anderson, Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Grace Chang, Patricia Hill Collins, Stephanie Coontz, Margaret Crosbie-Burnett, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Beverly Greene, Michelle Harrison, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Jacqueline Jones, Nazli Kibria, Roger Lawson, Edith A. Lewis, Michael A. Messner, Gabrielle Raley, Rayna Rapp, Maria P.P. Root, Barbara Katz Rothman, Lillian B. Rubin, Sarah Ryan, Karen Brodkin Sacks, George J. Sanchez, Judith Stacey, Stephen Steinberg, Niara Sudarkasa, Thomas J. Sugrue, Beth Vail, William Julius Wilson, Maxine Baca Zinn

STEPHANIE COONTZ is Professor of Family History at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. She is author of The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families (1997) and The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (1992). MAYA PARSON is a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. GABRIELLE RALEY is a researcher for a consultant firm in Olympia, Washington.

AMERICAN FAMILIES:

* Is divided into seven parts: The American Tradition of Family Diversity; Integrating Race, Class, and Gender into Family Theory; Working-Class and Inner-City Families under Economic Stress; Globalization and Today's Immigrant Families; Work-Family Issues; New Forms of Family Diversity; Recognizing Diversity, Encouraging Solidarity

* Asks whether there is really such a thing as a "normal" family or parenting arrangement

* Considers how and why families in different groups differ, and how such families have changed over time

* Examines why "the family values debate" is problematic; How one-size-fits-all prescriptions for family policy and family health don't really fit anyone at all

* Allows readers to get beyond both optimism and pessimism about family change to look realistically at why and how families vary and what that means, both for individual family members and for society as a whole.

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