American Families, Second Edition: A Multicultural Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415958210 ISBN 13: 9780415958219

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

In the past forty years, American families have become more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before. Different family forms and living arrangements have also multiplied, with single-parent families, cohabiting couples with children, divorced couples with children, stepfamilies, and newly-visible same-sex families. During the same period, socioeconomic inequality among families has risen to levels not seen since the 1920s.

This second edition of American Families offers several benefits:

• clear conceptual focus
• new attention to the historical origins of contemporary family diversity
• well-chosen essays by leading names from across the curriculum
• explores the interactions between race-ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality in shaping family life
• cCompletely updated and expanded bibliography of related sources
• new companion website with student and instructor resources to enhance learning.

Leading off with a comprehensive and teachable introduction to the topic, this completely updated, revised, and expanded second edition of Stephanie Coontz's classic collection American Families remains the best resource available on family diversity in America.

For additional information and classroom resources please visit the American Families companion website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415958219.

 

About this title

Review:

'What a collection of articles! Stephanie Coontz has gathered together the writing of many of the most important scholars of our time to address one of the most important issues of our time – the growing diversity of American families. A great choice for undergraduate classrooms and an addition to any scholar’s bookshelf.' – Barbara J. Risman, Author of Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition

'American Families provides a powerful exploration of the challenges facing contemporary families. From the historical roots of inequality to tools to theorize the meanings of difference, this collection provides engaging readings that illustrate American past and present struggles, laced with hope for the future.' – Jennifer A. Reich, Author of Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System

'American Families is a marvel – the authors have identified some the very best and clearest new scholarship. The book affords an accurate, thoughtful and thought-provoking glimpse at family life in the US as it really is.' –- Linda Gordon, Author of The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction

'The book is ideal for undergraduate teaching purposes. Family researchers, however, will also want to have this in-depth yet accessible resource on their shelves. Beyond the substantive findings presented, several chapters do a great job of synthesizing a range of scholarship related to family diversity and  outlining potentially fruitful avenues for subsequent theorizing and research. I highly recommend this volume. Several articles left me wanting more, excited about the unanswered questions and future research possibilities related to family diversity. Coontz's volume takes a big leap forward in shifting issues of diversity to the center of family research.' –- Jennifer Utrata, Assistant Professor, University of Puget Sound, in the Journal of Marriage and 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0415958210
• ISBN 13: 9780415958219
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 488
• Editor: Coontz Stephanie