false 270009 4 Did you ever wonder about the historical accuracy of those "traditional family values" touted in the heated arguments that insist our cultural ills can be remedied by their return? Of course, myth is rooted in fact, and certain phenomena of the 1950s generated the <I>Ozzie and Harriet</I> icon. The decade proved profamily--the birthrate rose dramatically; social problems that nag--gangs, drugs, violence--weren't even on the horizon. Affluence had become almost a right; the middle class was growing. "In fact," writes Coontz, "the 'traditional' family of the 1950s was a qualitatively new phenomenon. At the end of the 1940s, all the trends characterizing the rest of the twentieth century suddenly reversed themselves." This clear-eyed, bracing, and exhaustively researched study of American families and the nostalgia trap proves--beyond the shadow of a doubt--that <I>Leave It to Beaver</I> was not a documentary. <p> Gender, too, is always on Coontz's mind. In the third chapter ("My Mother Was a Saint"), she offers an analysis of the contradictions and chasms inherent in the "traditional" division of labor. She reveals, next, how rarely the family exhibited economic and emotional self-reliance, suggesting that the shift from community to nuclear family was not healthy. Coontz combines a clear prose style with bold assertions, backed up by an astonishing fleet of researched, myth-skewing facts. The 88 pages of endnotes dramatize both her commitment to and deep knowledge of the subject. Brilliant, beautifully organized, iconoclastic, and (relentlessly) informative <I>The Way We Never Were</I> breathes fresh air into a too often suffocatingly "hot" and agenda-sullied subject. In the penultimate chapter, for example, a crisp reframing of the myth of black-family collapse leads to a reinterpretation of the "family crisis" in general, putting it in the larger context of social, economic, and political ills. <p> The book began in response to the urgent questions about the family crisis posed her by nonacademic audiences. Attempting neither to defend "tradition" in the era of family collapse, nor to liberate society from its constraints, Coontz instead cuts through the kind of sentimental, ahistorical thinking that has created unrealistic expectations of the ideal family. "I show how these myths distort the diverse experiences of other groups in America," Coontz writes, "and argue that they don't even describe most white, middle-class families accurately." The bold truth of history after all is that "there is no one family form that has ever protected people from poverty or social disruption, and no traditional arrangement that provides a workable model for how we might organize family relations in the modern world." <p> Some of America's most precious myths are not only precarious, but down right perverted, and we would be fools to ignore Stephanie Coontz's clarion call. <I>--Hollis Giammatteo</I> 2467804 1992 The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap total:230|5:61|4:94|3:61|2:13|1:1| 230 891 503 33 5 2 false false Fri Feb 09 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Apr 26 05:26:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 26 05:26:21 -0700 2008 The Way We Never Were Stephanie Coontz exposes the myths surrounding American families. The extent to which the family has been mythologised is truly staggering. I especially loved the way she exposed the extraordinary self-deceptions that Americans have about “traditional” families, partic...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Apr 17 06:31:44 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 07:05:15 -0700 2008
Here's just one example. "Always s...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 03 09:39:01 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 09:55:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 19:06:06 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 19:10:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun May 18 18:46:02 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 18:46:38 -0700 2008 5 1 false false Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 06:50:45 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 17:29:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Nov 22 08:12:32 -0800 2008 Fri Oct 30 02:47:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 18 16:32:38 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 16 19:18:54 -0800 2009 Assumptions so deep and unexamined that they seem like Truth are carefully teased out into the open, and examined in the light of history. You think that we've got new and original family problems these days? Unprecedented government meddling into family affa...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Dec 22 14:29:28 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 14:30:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Oct 18 16:08:11 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 16:12:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 06:58:12 -0800 2008 Sun Apr 19 19:34:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 07:21:26 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 11:10:43 -0700 2009 5 0 true false Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Fri Oct 03 12:37:56 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 03 12:37:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 03 07:35:52 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 28 18:09:35 -0700 2009
A little dry, in the endless evocation of statistics, but that's what gives it its power. It's certainly depressing, I think, because it points out the s...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Mar 03 15:00:13 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 15:00:54 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 23:06:29 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 23:07:05 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 12:30:20 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 12:36:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 26 20:59:21 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 14 14:45:22 -0700 2008 Negatives: with so much subject ma...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 15 17:15:26 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 07 19:34:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jul 05 11:03:57 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 15:10:59 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=270009