The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap - Coontz, Stephanie Review & Synopsis

 Synopsis

The definitive edition of the classic, myth-shattering history of the American family

 Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues, and neither does any other era from our cultural past. This revised edition includes a new introduction and epilogue, exploring how the clash between growing gender equality and rising economic inequality is reshaping family life, marriage, and male-female relationships in our modern era.

 

 More relevant than ever, The Way We Never Were is a potent corrective to dangerous nostalgia for an American tradition that never really existed.

Review

Stephanie Coontz is a member of the faculty of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and the director of research and public education at the Council on Contemporary Families."[Coontz] approaches the subject of what we now insist up on calling 'family values' with what is, in the current atmosphere, a refreshing lack of partisan cant."-Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

"Stephanie Coontz has her finger on the pulse of contemporary families like no one else in America."-Paula England, 2015-15 President, American Sociological Association

"Coontz presents fascinating facts and figures that explode the cherished myths about self-sufficient, happy, moral families."-Newsday

"Historically rich, and loaded with anecdotal evidence, The Way We Never Were effectively demolishes the normal, traditional nuclear family as neither normal nor traditional, and not even nuclear."-Nation

"A wonderfully perceptive, myth-debunking report.... An important contribution to the current debate on family values."-Publishers Weekly

"Clear, incisive, and distinguished by Coontz's personal conviction and by its vast range of cogent examples, including capsule histories of women in the labor force and of black families. Fascinating, persuasive, politically relevant."-Kirkus Reviews

"Coontz's strength is in the way she shows that families of every era have been blamed for conditions beyond their control."-San Francisco Chronicle

"[Coontz] persuasively dispels the myths and stereotypes of 'traditional' family values as the product of the postwar era."-Library Journal

The Way We Never Were

The definitive edition of the classic, myth-shattering history of the American family Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues, and neither does any other era from our cultural past. This revised edition includes a new introduction and epilogue, exploring how the clash between growing gender equality and rising economic inequality is reshaping family life, marriage, and male-female relationships in our modern era. More relevant than ever, The Way We Never Were is a potent corrective to dangerous nostalgia for an American tradition that never really existed.

A8; Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York: Norton, 1979). 5. Susan Forward with Craig Buck , Toxic Parents : Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life ..."

The Way We Really Are

Some problems associated with these changes, Coontz explains, come from economic and cultural forces beyond the family; others exist not because our families have changed too much but because our institutions and values haven't changed enough.

Every family has distinctive resources and special vulnerabilities, and there are ways to help each one build on its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.The book provides a meticulously researched, balanced account showing why a ..."

The Social Origins of Private Life

Coontz traces the complexity and variety of family arrangements in American history, from Native American kin groups to the emergence of the dominant middle-class family ideal in the 1890s.

Coontz traces the complexity and variety of family arrangements in American history, from Native American kin groups to the emergence of the dominant middle-class family ideal in the 1890s."

American Families

This collection by leading scholars discusses race, gender and class stressing their effects on American families.

This collection by leading scholars discusses race, gender and class stressing their effects on American families."

A Strange Stirring

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. Hundreds of women wrote to her to say that the book had transformed, even saved, their lives. Nearly half a century later, many women still recall where they were when they first read it. In A Strange Stirring, historian Stephanie Coontz examines the dawn of the 1960s, when the sexual revolution had barely begun, newspapers advertised for "perky, attractive gal typists," but married women were told to stay home, and husbands controlled almost every aspect of family life. Based on exhaustive research and interviews, and challenging both conservative and liberal myths about Friedan, A Strange Stirring brilliantly illuminates how a generation of women came to realize that their dissatisfaction with domestic life didn't't reflect their personal weakness but rather a social and political injustice.

In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. Hundreds of women wrote to her to say that the book had transformed, even saved, their lives."

Marriage, a History

Just when the clamor over "traditional" marriage couldn’t get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, "What tradition?" In Marriage, a History, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the torments of Victorian lovers to demonstrate how recent the idea of marrying for love is—and how absurd it would have seemed to most of our ancestors. It was when marriage moved into the emotional sphere in the nineteenth century, she argues, that it suffered as an institution just as it began to thrive as a personal relationship. This enlightening and hugely entertaining book brings intelligence, perspective, and wit to today’s marital debate.

Just when the clamor over "traditional" marriage couldn’t get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, "What tradition?"

Women's Work, Men's Property

“To some a book on the origins of sexual inequality is absurd. Male dominance seems to them a universal, if not inevitable, phenomenon that has been with us since the dawn of our species. The essays in this volume offer differing perspectives on the development of sex-role differentiation and sexual inequality, but share a belief that these phenomena did have social origins, origins that must be sought in sociohistorical events and processes.” In this way Stephanie Coontz and Peta Henderson introduce a book which fills a yawning gap in Marxist and feminist theory of recent years. Women’s Work, Men’s Property brings together specialist historical and anthropological skills of a group of American and French feminists to examine the origins of the sexual division of labor, the nature of pre-state kinship societies, the position of women in slave-based societies, and the specific forms taken by the oppression of women in archaic Greece. Men’s Work, Women’s Property will be welcomed by teachers and students of women’s studies and anyone with an interest in the biological, psychological and historical roots of sexual inequality.

The essays in this volume offer differing perspectives on the development of sex-role differentiation and sexual inequality, but share a belief that these phenomena did have social origins, origins that must be sought in sociohistorical ..."

The Way Things Never Were

A history of the United States during the 1950s and 1960s including sections on health care, eating habits, family life, environmental issues, and the condition of the elderly.

 Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books, 1992. Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Really Are. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Elliott, Michael. The Day Before Yesterday."

How Families Matter

This book explores the ways adults make sense of their family lives in the midst of the complicated debates generated by politicians and social scientists. It finds that parents and siblings cultivate a family identity that both defines who they are and influences who they become.

 Coontz , Stephanie . 1988. The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families , 1600–1900. London: Verso. Coontz , Stephanie . 1992. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: BasicBooks."

21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook

21st Century Sociology: A Reference Handbook provides a concise forum through which the vast array of knowledge accumulated, particularly during the past three decades, can be organized into a single definitive resource. The two volumes of this Reference Handbook focus on the corpus of knowledge garnered in traditional areas of sociological inquiry, as well as document the general orientation of the newer and currently emerging areas of sociological inquiry.

Social History of the American Family . Vol. 1. Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark. ... Coontz , Stephanie . 1992. The Way We Never Were : ... Coontz , Stephanie . 2000. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap 2d ed."

A Companion to Post-1945 America

A Companion to Post-1945 America is an original collectionof 34 essays by key scholars on the history and historiography ofPost-1945 America. Covers society and culture, people and movements, politics andforeign policy Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every importantera and topic Includes book review section on essential readings

Way. We. Never. Were. (1992). ELAINE. TYLER. MAY. When it first appeared in 1992, Stephanie Coontz's myth-shattering book, The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap , gained wide attention, both inside and outside ..."

Natural Law Today

Natural Law Today gives a strong voice to classical natural law theory as the best answers to the fundamental questions of ethics and as the best framework for political and social life. It explains various aspects of that theory and defends it against common misperceptions and criticisms.

The widespread hold of nonjudgmentalism on the contemporary American mind is emphasized (and regarded too benignly) ... One example is Stephanie Coontz , The Way We Never : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, ..."

Youth Cultures in America [2 volumes]

What are the components of youth cultures today? This encyclopedia examines the facets of youth cultures and brings them to the forefront. Offers information on groups beyond the gangs the public associates with youth culture, providing definitions of suburban youth culture, survivalists and preppers, the deaf, skateboarders, Gen X, soldiers, and street kids, among others Provides coverage of the expressive genres of American youth and the way they have shaped public tastes and trends, such as music, dance, fashion, tattooing, body piercing, social media, and more Features an exploration of life issues for youth that have entered into the headlines—for example, bullying, cliques, rites of passage, student protest and activism, child abuse, and drugs

Boomer Youths in Memory The boomers are an important generation because they occupy extremely powerful positions in the institutions of the ... Coontz , Stephanie . 1992. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap ."

Macho Men and Modern Women

Claudia Roesch offers a study of Mexican American families and evolving notions of masculinity and motherhood in the context of American family history. The book focuses both on the negotiation of family norms in social expert studies and on measures taken by social workers and civil-rights activists for families. The work fills gaps in research regarding the history of the American family in the 20th century, the history of Mexican Americans, and the history of social sciences. Taking a long-term perspective from the first wave of Mexican mass immigration in the 1910s and 1920s until the new social movements of the 1970s, the study takes into account influences of the Americanization and eugenics movements, modernization theory, psychoanalysis, and the Chicano civil-rights movement. Thus, Claudia Roesch offers important new findings on the nexus between the scientization of social work and changing family values in the age of modernity.

Mexican Immigration, Social Experts and Changing Family Values in the 20th Century United States Claudia Roesch ... Coontz , Stephanie : The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap , nd ed."

Peacock Revolution

The Peacock Revolution in menswear of the 1960s came as a profound shock to much of America. Men's long hair and vividly colored, sexualized clothes challenged long established traditions of masculine identity. Peacock Revolution is an in-depth study of how radical changes in men's clothing reflected, and contributed to, the changing ideas of American manhood initiated by a 'youthquake' of rebellious baby boomers coming of age in an era of social revolutions. Featuring a detailed examination of the diverse socio-cultural and socio-political movements of the era, the book examines how those dissents and advocacies influenced the youthquake generation's choices in dress and ideas of masculinity. Daniel Delis Hill provides a thorough chronicle of the peacock fashions of the time, beginning with the mod looks of the British Invasion in the early 1960s, through the counterculture street styles and the mass-market trends they inspired, and concluding with the dress-for-success menswear revivals of the 1970s Me-Decade.

 Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic, 1992. Corry, John. A Satirical View of London. London: R. Ogle, 1804. Costantino, Maria. Men's Fashion in the Twentieth Century: From ..."

Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us as Feminist Acadamics and Activists

Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us As Feminist Academics and Activists is an interdisciplinary collection that combines feminist theory with life writing to explore the diverse ways that mothers, whether or not they themselves identity as “feminist,” inspire feminist consciousness in their daughters and sons. It features creative and scholarly contributions from feminist academics, activists, writers and artists from different educational backgrounds, places and walks of life. While not an exclusive celebration of maternal relations, this collection provides an antidote to matrophobia and mother-blaming by critically exploring and affirming the myriad of challenges and complexities that constitute motherwork. It explores how the mothering of feminist daughters and sons intersects with issues of gender, sexuality, dis- ability, ethnicity, racialization, citizenship, religion, economic class, education, and socio-historical location. Collectively these essays explore the centrality of intergenerational matrilineal narratives in shaping feminist consciousness, they deconstruct dominant ideologies of patriarchal motherhood and womanhood, and they challenge the notion that there is a formulaic way to raise feminist daughters and sons, or a singular “correct” way to engage in feminist maternal practice.

to remember that, no matter what bungalow you may live in, there's always a case to break, a mystery to solve, or something interesting ... WORKS CITED Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap ."

The Social History of the American Family

The American family has come a long way from the days of the idealized family portrayed in iconic television shows of the 1950s and 1960s. The four volumes of The Social History of the American Family explore the vital role of the family as the fundamental social unit across the span of American history. Experiences of family life shape so much of an individual’s development and identity, yet the patterns of family structure, family life, and family transition vary across time, space, and socioeconomic contexts. Both the definition of who or what counts as family and representations of the “ideal” family have changed over time to reflect changing mores, changing living standards and lifestyles, and increased levels of social heterogeneity. Available in both digital and print formats, this carefully balanced academic work chronicles the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of American families from the colonial period to the present. Key themes include families and culture (including mass media), families and religion, families and the economy, families and social issues, families and social stratification and conflict, family structures (including marriage and divorce, gender roles, parenting and children, and mixed and non-modal family forms), and family law and policy. Features: Approximately 600 articles, richly illustrated with historical photographs and color photos in the digital edition, provide historical context for students. A collection of primary source documents demonstrate themes across time. The signed articles, with cross references and Further Readings, are accompanied by a Reader’s Guide, Chronology of American Families, Resource Guide, Glossary, and thorough index. The Social History of the American Family is an ideal reference for students and researchers who want to explore political and social debates about the importance of the family and its evolving constructions.

Further Readings Bryson , Bill . At Home: A Short History of Private Life . New York: Anchor Books, 2010. Gans, Herbert J. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. New York: Pantheon Books, 1967."

Battleground: The Family [2 volumes]

Everyone is part of a family, but what constitutes a family is one of the most hotly debated issues in the United States today. Battleground: The Family provides extensive coverage of those critical issues in U. S. culture concerning current and future family life, such as dating, marriage, parenting, work and family, abuse, and divorce. The scholarly contributors to this set provide unbiased coverage on these often incendiary topics, allowing students to assess the role of these controversies in their own lives. Entries thoroughly introduce the topic of concern, describe the problem as it currently exists, provide context for the controversies surrounding it, synthesize the current knowledge on the topic, and guide the reader to additional areas for consideration. Battleground: The Family serves as a starting point for those advanced high school and beginning undergraduate students who wish to pursue a more detailed study of family controversies and cultural concerns for classroom assignments. Non-specialist readers will also find this a useful resource in critically assessing current trends and conflicts in constituent groups' conceptions of family.

 Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families . New York: Basic Books, 1997."

You Don't Have to Carry It All

Award-winning journalist and mom-of-three Paula Faris gives insightful and practical steps for better working, momming, and living to millions of overwhelmed working moms. In Paula Faris's most important reporting yet, You Don't Have to Carry It All reveals a game plan that will not only make being a working mom "work" but will also reveal how and why society needs to value mothers first. Weaving together groundbreaking research with inspirational wisdom, she: recognizes the history of working moms in America and its lasting impact today, shows how motherhood has scientifically improved the minds and capabilities of women, encourages moms to link arms, not only with each other but also with men, and proves why corporate America is better with moms at the helm. After interviewing countless experts, thought leaders and mothers, Faris believes we can join together to create a path forward for ditching the mom guilt, ending burnout, and finally giving working moms the support they so desperately need. Because with working moms on the job, there are literally no hands more capable of creating the change we need!

5. https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/ family -portrait-gm157675111-14772504? phrase=19th%20century%20family. 6. Stephanie Coontz , The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 4–5. 7."

New Family Values

New Family Values provides a critical analysis of scholars and authors who argue that law and policy should be used to foster one model of family--the intact two-parent (heterosexual) family. The author argues that this position does not adequately address the problem in purports to solve -family dissolution--and unnecessarily constrains personal liberty. Civic stability and individual well-being require healthy families, but do not necessitate uniformity in family form.

 Family Man : Fatherhood , Housework , and Gender Equity . New York : Oxford University Press , 1996 . Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York : Basic Books , 1992 . The Way We Are ..."

Inventing the Modern American Family

Family is the foundation of society, and debates on family norms have always touched the very heart of America. This volume investigates the negotiations and transformations of family values and gender norms in the twentieth century as they relate to the overarching processes of social change of that period. By combining long-term approaches with innovative analysis,Inventing the “Modern American Family” transcends not only the classical dichotomies between women's studies and masculinity studies, but also contribute substantially to the history of gender and culture in the United States.

A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique andAmerican Women at the Dawn ofthe 1960s. New York: Basic Books, 2011 . Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books, (first ed ."

Legalizing Plural Marriage

Polygamous marriages are currently recognized in nearly fifty countries worldwide. Although polygamy is technically illegal in the United States, it is practiced by members of some religious communities and a growing number of other "poly" groups. In the radically changing and increasingly multicultural world in which we live, the time has come to define polygamous marriage and address its legal feasibilities. Although Mark Goldfeder does not argue the right or wrong of plural marriage, he maintains that polygamy is the next step - after same-sex marriage - in the development of U.S. family law. Providing a road map to show how such legalization could be handled, he explores the legislative and administrative arguments which demonstrate that plural marriage is not as farfetched - or as far off - as we might think. Goldfeder argues not only that polygamy is in keeping with the legislative values and freedoms of the United States, but also that it would not be difficult to manage or administrate within our current legal system. His legal analysis is enriched throughout with examples of plural marriage in diverse cultural and historical contexts. Tackling the issue of polygamy in the United States from a legal perspective, this book will engage anyone interested in constitutional law, family law, or criminal law, along with sociologists and those who study gender and culture in modern times.

Cherlin, Andrew J., The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (2010). ... Coontz , Stephanie , The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (1992). Coontz , Stephanie , The Way We Really ..."

Shirley Jackson and Domesticity

Shirley Jackson and Domesticity takes on American horror writer Shirley Jackson's domestic narratives \u0096 those fictionalized in her novels and short stories as well as the ones captured in her memoirs \u0096 to explore the extraordinary and often supernatural ways domestic practices and the ecology of the home influence Jackson's storytelling. Examining various areas of homemaking \u0096 child-rearing and reproduction, housekeeping, architecture and spatiality, the housewife mythos \u0096 through the theoretical frameworks of gothic, queer, gender, supernatural, humor, and architectural studies, this collection contextualizes Jackson's archive in a Cold War framework and assesses the impact of the work of a writer seeking to question the status quo of her time and culture.

“Children in the Time of Famine,” in The Grimm Reader: Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm, ed. and trans. Maria Tatar, 317–18. New York: Norton, 2016. Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap ."

One Marriage Under God

The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. This book uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety.

 Coontz , Stephanie . 1992. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books. ———. 1997. The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families . New York: Basic Books. ———."

Everything You Need to Know About Living in a Blended Family

Growing up with a step-parent or step-siblings is very common these days, but it isn't always easy. This honest book delivers the scoop on what it's like to learn to be part of a whole new family unit. Covering a range of scenarios, it provides advice for readers who may be moving away from a beloved parent, dealing with jealousy over a new sibling, coping with custody battles, or being abused by a step-parent. While every family's situation is different, this book teaches teens concrete strategies for improving communications with family members and working through their emotions.

 Coontz , Stephanie . Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2006. Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York, NY: Basic Books, 2016."

American Families Past and Present

Bringing together essays by twenty-one distinguished scholars who have helped shape the field of family sociology in the last decade, this interdisciplinary anthology examines variation within family experience, especially as it has evolved across racial, ethnic, social, gender, and generational lines. The essays place historical and institutional frameworks at the center of the discussion. In-depth chapter introductions along with critical questions to spark class discussion make this an ideal text for courses focusing on family composition, trends, and controversies in the United States.

 Coontz , Stephanie . 1992. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York : Basic Books . Coontz , Stephanie , with Maya Parson and Gabrielle Raley , eds . 1999. American Families : A Multi- cultural Reader ..."

Family, Ties and Care

Families international – the new milestone How may care be secured—particularly in ageing societies, how may families, relatives and friends support each other and live together beyond market reasons? How can social welfare be secured? How do different countries and different cultures solve the problems they may or may not, now or in days to come, share with other countries and cultures? Families, as is found in this publication by internationally renowned experts, are the base and well of society’s fortune in a humane paradigm. Furthermore, it is the very backbone of lifelong solidarity in inter-generational relations, and the very place where the readiness of taking on care and responsibility are experienced and learned. The publication’s underlying idea opens up two perspectives: on the one hand, differences and similarities in family life forms are chiselled out on the base of an international cooperation. Simultaneously, the international authors are called upon to express their ideas about their own country’s future more distinctly and clearly; thus, distinctions and similarities of the respective paths of development are rather easily perceived.

 Coontz , Stephanie (1992): The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books. Coontz , Stephanie (1988): The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families 1600- 1900. London: Verso."

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History: Men's-YMCA

of the situation comedies delivering audiences for the new commercial entertainment medium of television were all dominated by the ideal norm of ... Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap ."

Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging

Designed for students, academics and the general reader alike, Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging provides theoretical and empirical insights into the linkages between sexualities and forms of desire, and ways of belonging and relating to others in specific contexts and moments in time. Opening with a substantial introduction by one of the editors, this collection of thirteen essays is organised into three parts, each section making important contributions to contemporary debates regarding the sexual politics of citizenship, marriage, friendship, pornography, intimacies, eroticism and desire. As such, the essays introduce fresh perspectives for thinking about how individuals construct senses of belonging and modes of relating to others in their everyday lives, within the disciplinary frameworks of sociology, organisational analysis and cultural studies. As well, the volume analyses representations of desire and eroticism in British Pop Art, trauma and feminist fiction, polyamory self-help literature, Hollywood films, and sociological and psychoanalytic theory. Analytical insights offered within these essays will do much to stimulate debate about aspects of the socially and historically constituted relationship between desire and sexuality. Because of the diverse approaches and conclusions it contains, the volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in engaging with inter- and multidisciplinary perspectives in order to understand the dynamics between constructions of desire and belonging, and discourses of gender, sex and sexuality.

 Stephanie Coontz , The Way We Never Were (New York: Basic Books, 1992). 21. See Kathleen Gerson, “Coping With Commitment: Dilemmas and Conflicts of Family Life,” in America at Century's End, ed. Alan Wolfe (Berkeley: University of ..."

Gale Researcher Guide for: Families and Kinship

Gale Researcher Guide for: Families and Kinship is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.

Cherlin, Andrew J. The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today. New York: Vintage, 2010. Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books, 1993."

Privilege Lost

There are two narratives of the American class structure: one of a country with boundless opportunities for upward mobility and one of a rigid class system in which the rich stay rich while the poor stay poor. Each of these narratives holds some truth, but each overlooks another. In Privilege Lost, Jessi Streib traces the lives of over 100 youth born into the upper-middle-class. Following them for over ten years as they transition from teens to young adults, Streib examines who falls from the upper-middle-class, how, and why don't they see it coming. In doing so, she reveals the patterned ways that individuals' resources and identities push them onto mobility paths--and the complicated choices youth make between staying true to themselves and staying in their class position. Engaging and eye-opening, Privilege Lost brings to life the stories of the downwardly mobile and highlights what they reveal about class, privilege, and American family life.

 Coontz , Stephanie . 2016. The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books. Cooper, Marianne. 2014. Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times. Berkeley: University of California Press."

Gender

A landmark publication in the social sciences, Linda Lindsey’s Gender is the most comprehensive textbook to explore gender sociologically, as a critical and fundamental dimension of a person’s identity, interactions, development, and role and status in society. Ranging in scope from the everyday lived experiences of individuals to the complex patterns and structures of gender that are produced by institutions in our global society, the book reveals how understandings of gender vary across time and place and shift along the intersecting lines of race, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, class and religion. Arriving at a time of enormous social change, the new, seventh edition extends its rigorous, theoretical approach to reflect on recent events and issues with insights that challenge conventional thought about the gender binary and the stereotypes that result. Recent and emerging topics that are investigated include the #MeToo and LGBTQ-rights movements, political misogyny in the Trump era, norms of masculinity, marriage and family formation, resurgent feminist activism and praxis, the gendered workplace, and profound consequences of neoliberal globalization. Enriching its sociological approach with interdisciplinary insight from feminist, biological, psychological, historical, and anthropological perspectives, the new edition of Gender provides a balanced and broad approach with readable, dynamic content that furthers student understanding, both of the importance of gender and how it shapes individual trajectories and social processes in the U.S. and across the globe.

The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . ... Catalyst 1(4):16 pages. https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no4/capitalism-and-the- family -an-interview-with- stephanie-coontz Cooper, Brittney C. 2017."

Screening American Nostalgia

This book examines American screen culture and its power to create and sustain values. Looking specifically at the ways in which nostalgia colors the visions of American life, essays explore contemporary American ideology as it is created and sustained by the screen. Nostalgia is omnipresent, selling a version of America that arguably never existed. Current socio-cultural challenges are played out onscreen and placed within the historical milieu through a nostalgic lens which is tempered by contemporary conservatism. Essays reveal not only the visual catalog of recognizable motifs but also how these are used to temper the uncertainty of contemporary crises. Media covered spans from 1939's Gone with the Wind, to Stranger Things, The Americans, Twin Peaks, the Fallout franchise and more.

 Coontz , Stephanie . The Way We Never Were : American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books, 1992. Easton, Anne. “Why 'The Americans ' Producers Are Stress Eating Ahead of the Final Season."