Research Catalog

Title

Families without fathers : fathers, marriage and children in American society / David Popenoe ; with a new introduction by the author.

Author

Popenoe, David, 1932-

Publication

New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 275 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

Synopsis: The American family is changing. Divorce, single parents, and stepfamilies are redefining the ways we live together and raise our children. Many "experts" feel these seemingly inevitable changes should be celebrated; they claim that the "new" families, which often lack a strong father, are actually healthier than traditional two-parent families-or, at the very least, do children no harm. But as David Popenoe shows in Families Without Fathers this optimistic view is severely misguided. Examining evidence from social and behavioral science, history, and evolutionary biology, Popenoe shows why fathers today are deserting their families in record numbers. The disintegration of the child-centered, two parent family-especially in the inner cities, where as many as two in three children are growing up without their fathers-and the weakening commitment of fathers to their children that more and more follows divorce, are central causes of many of our worst individual and social problems. Juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, and child poverty can be directly traced to fathers lack of involvement in their childrens lives. Our situation will only get worse, Popenoe warns, unless men are willing to renew their commitment to their marriages and to their children. Yet he is not just an alarmist. He suggests concrete policies, and new ways of thinking and acting that will help all fathers improve their marriages and family lives, and tells us what we as individuals and as a society can do to support and strengthen the most important thing a man can do.

Subject

• Fatherless families > United States
• Fatherhood > United States
• Fathers > United States
• Paternal deprivation > United States
• Children of single parents > United States
• United States > Social conditions

Note

• Originally published: Life without father. New York : Martin Kessler Books, c1996.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-264) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction to the Transaction edition -- Preface -- Introduction -- pt. 1. Fatherlessness -- 1. The remarkable decline of fatherhood and marriage -- 2. The human carnage of fatherlessness -- pt. 2. Fathers in history -- 3. Victorian fathers and the rise of the modern nuclear family -- 4. The shrinking father and the fall of the nuclear family -- pt. 3. Why fathers matter -- 5. What do fathers do? -- 6. The essential father -- pt. 4. Conclusions -- 7. Reclaiming fatherhood and marriage -- Notes -- Index.

ISBN

• 9781412810388 (alk. paper)
• 1412810388 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009003613

OCLC

286471570

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library