Major Problems in the History of American Families and Children

by Anya Jabour

Part of the Major Problems in American History series, this text for courses in family history or history of childhood balances its discussion of marriage and gender relations with coverage on children and childhood. Offering a thorough treatment of race, ethnicity, and class from colonial times to the present, this edition grants sustained attention to Native Americans and Latinos. Relating history to larger political events, the text narrative balances coverage of public policy toward families with coverage of the experiences of family life.

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2004

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was required reading for the first class I TA'ed in graduate school: American Family History. It works very well for a class of that kind, being made up of relatively short readings which sample from primary sources and scholarship focused specifically on the development of the family in the United States. It follows a chronological format, beginning with colonial and pre-colonial America and working up to "contemporary" America (2003 is the date of the most current document). The beginning also includes some more general historiographical discussion, probably best reserved for more advanced students.

The preface mentions that Jabour was partly inspired to begin working in this direction by the debate on "family values" centered at that time largely around the denunciation of the television program "Murphy Brown" by Vice President Dan Quayle. It is, predictably, intended as an argument against the position that American families "have always" been a certain way which is currently "in decline." That is not to say that it is a liberal screed, however, but more a consideration of the evidence for the ways families have changed in appearance and definition over the course of a few centuries on this continent. An effort has been made to be inclusive, and not to make a particular race or class representative of "Americans" at a given time or place, although documentation for some groups is of course limited. Students will probably be surprised to learn how much has changed in how short a time, and how differently their ancestors and predecessors lived, and the immediacy of studying the private lives of people close to them will hold much interest. Overall, it is a very good teaching tool, and an interesting read for the instructor as well.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read from this series, and I think it may be the last, at least for a while. It's not that the books are bad; they just don't live up to their titles. The essays in them are interesting and informative, but they don't give a very thorough overview of the topic at hand.