Looks at two centuries of American family life and shatters myths and misconceptions about the past

Essays explore the interaction of race, class, and gender in current scholarship on families, documenting the power structure of family systems throughout American history

Product Description: New product. Never used!

A historical analysis of the traditional institution of marriage traces its role as a practice designed to acquire favorable in-laws and improve a family's labor force, detailing how marriages have evolved from loveless, arranged unions to their present-day state, in an exposé that reveals the impact of Victorian-inspired marital intimacy, divorce, and alternative lifestyles. Reprint.

A historical analysis of the traditional institution of marriage traces its role as a practice designed to acquire favorable in-laws and improve a family's labor force, detailing how marriages have evolved from loveless, arranged unions to their present-day state, in an exposé that reveals the impact of Victorian-inspired marital intimacy, divorce, and alternative lifestyles.

Presents an account of family life and diversity today, suggesting that every kind of family can build on its strengths and minimize its weaknesses

Product Description: A highly original account of the evolution of the family unit Current debates about the future of the family are often based on serious misconceptions about its past. Arguing that there is no biologically mandated or universally functional family form, Stephanie 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...read more

Essays discuss the origins of the sexual division of labor, the role of women in ancient societies, and the nature of slavery