shopping cart
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Book News, Guests | December 14, 2009

Amy Gray: IMG How to Be a Vampire

4 comments By Amy Gray

Oh, hi. I'm Amy Gray. I like smoking, carbs, and words. I live in the (currently) sleek humidity of Melbourne, Australia. When not lying... Continue »
  1. $10.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    How to Be a Vampire: A Fangs-On Guide for the Newly Undead

    Amy Gray
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$8.95
List price: $19.50
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Burnside American Studies- General

More copies of this ISBN:

This title in other formats:

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap

by Stephanie Coontz

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap Cover

ISBN13: 9780465090976
ISBN10: 0465090974
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 2 left in stock at $8.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Way We Never Were examines two centuries of American family life and shatters a series of myths and half-truths that burden modern families. Placing current family dilemmas in the context of far-reaching economic, political, and demographic changes, Coontz sheds new light on such contemporary concerns as parenting, privacy, love, the division of labor along gender lines, the black family, feminism, and sexual practice.

Review:

"Coontz approaches the subject of what we now insist upon calling 'family values' with what is, in the current atmosphere, a refreshing lack of partisan cant."(--Jonathan Yardley,Washington Post)

Review:

"Provocative, challenging, and persuasively argued."(--William H. Chafe, Duke University)

Synopsis:

From "a man's home was his castle" to "traditional families never asked for a handout", this provocative book explodes cherished illusions about the last two centuries of American family life to expose the falseness, sentimentality, and self-righteousness of our accepted familial morays.

Description:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [377]-379) and index.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Alan Rudy, March 17, 2007 (view all comments by Alan Rudy)
This is an exceptional part sociological, part historical and part polemical dissection of the contemporary politics of the family, particularly that circling around the idealized model of the 1950s suburban white nuclear family.
The key point is that the family so often idealized is a product of highly particular social circumstances, in short the post-war/cold war boom, circumstances which had never existed for the majority of folks (anywhere) beforehand and no longer do since the rise of neoliberal forms of globalization and national de/re-regulation.
Furthermore, even in the 1950s, the '50s nuclear family was far less the norm than imagined (poor, rural, immigrant and old-money'd families have never lived this way) and generated far more social, psychological, sexual and gender contradictions (witness, the 1960s and 70s) than could be contained within the ideal.
Followed by The Way We Really Are (1997?) and Marriage, A History (2002?), Coontz's work is fabulous for undergraduate sociology, social work and general education courses -- as well as fascinating for non-students interested in questions of family and marriage.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(3 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780465090976
Subtitle:
American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
Introduction:
Coontz, Stephanie
Author:
Coontz, Stephanie
Publisher:
Basic Books
Location:
New York, NY :
Subject:
General
Subject:
History
Subject:
United states
Subject:
Family
Subject:
Sociology - Marriage & Family
Subject:
Sociology
Subject:
Sociology, anthropology and archaeology
Subject:
Marriage and family
Subject:
Nostalgia
Subject:
United States - General
Copyright:
1992
Edition Description:
Pbk. ed with new introduction.
Series Volume:
1697
Publication Date:
January 1992
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
432
Dimensions:
8.00x5.34x1.19 in. .79 lbs.
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

    Robert D Putnam
  2. $14.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

    Elaine Tyler May
  3. $4.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Habits of the heart :individualism and commitment in American life

    Robert N Bellah
  4. $7.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge-And Why We Must

    Kalle Lasn
  5. $4.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued

    Ann Crittenden
  6. $3.00 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Coffee :a story

    Tom Lang
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.