American Families: A Multicultural Reader by Stephanie Coontz (Editor), Maya Parson, Gabrielle Raley, Maya Parson (Editor), Gabrielle Raley (Editor)

From the Publisher

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 new 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

Completely 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.

Katha Pollitt

This is the best single-volume guide I know to the way we live now. -- Nation

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

Booknews

A reader for a two-quarter seminar on race, class, and gender in family scholarship. Selections shed light on debates in family diversity, revealing that in every historical period, the US has had several distinct but interconnected family systems, all of which form part of a larger constellation of power relations, unequal access to resources, and struggles over ideological representations of family life. Topics include American Indians and the boarding school experience, social science theorizing for Latino families, gay and lesbian families, and biracial identity. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Product Details

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Table of Contents