Families in the U.S.

This engaging collection of essays attempts to do justice to the complexity of contemporary families and to situate them in their economic, political, and cultural contexts. The editors introduce this wide-ranging collection with a provocative analytical introduction, setting the stage with a recognition that families may look very different even to those inside the same family. These cutting-edge scholars explore the ways in which family life is gendered and reflect on the work of maintaining family and kin relationships, especially as social and family power structures change over time. The book includes a guide to topics (from Adoption and African-American Families to Work-Family Tensions and Working-Class Families) that should prove useful to teachers, students, and researchers. Author note: Karen V. Hansen, Associate Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University, is the author of "A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England", and the co-editor (with Ilene J. Philipson) of "Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination: A Socialist-Feminist Reader" (Temple, 1990). Anita Ilta Garey, Assistant Professor of Family Studies at the University of Connecticut, is the author of "Weaving Work and Family: Working Mothers and the Construction of Meaning" (Temple).