HAWES, Joseph M. and Elizabeth I. NYBAKKEN, eds., AMERICAN FAMILIES: A Research Guide and Historical Handbook
| Autor: | J. F. Conway |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1994 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Comparative Family Studies. 25:278-280 |
| ISSN: | 1929-9850 0047-2328 |
| DOI: | 10.3138/jcfs.25.2.278 |
| Popis: | Hawes, Joseph M. and Elizabeth I. Nybakken, eds., American Families: A Research Guide and Historical Handbook Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1991, 435 pp., $75.00 hardcover.This volume of readings is an important acquisition for any university library, but the price might discourage the temptation of adding it to one's personal collection . Two caveats are in order at the outset. First, one should note that, although the title does not make it as clear as it should, this collection is completely historical--all thirteen contributors are American historians. As such, the book is of limited value to those dealing with research and teaching on contemporary family issues. Had the editors dropped the four articles in Part III, "Topics in the History of the American Family," and substituted articles by sociologists of the family dealing in depth with the current crisis of the family, the volume would have been much more useful. It is regrettable we are rarely able to realize cross-disciplinary publication projects.The second caveat is that this book is neither a research guide nor a handbook, at least not as the terms are usually understood in most social sciences. It is, however, a very good bibliography. Each article is backed up by an excellent bibliography. An integrated and lengthy selected bibliography is also provided at the end of the volume. Despite the obvious overlap which results, the reader is thereby provided fully 144 pages of bibliography in 393 pages of text, excluding the very detailed index. Such luxury! As a result, the book is an excellent library tool for students and faculty on the topics covered in the book: theoretical approaches, five historical periods in the U.S. family from 1600 to the present, women in the family, African American families, Native American families, and immigrant working-class families.It is impossible to do justice in a few hundred reviewer's words to the work of thirteen leading scholars whose labours have produced around two dozen books and countless articles. I will therefore satisfy myself with saying each article is well written and a joy to read, and get on with the book's central impact on me, a pretender at social history trapped in the discipline of sociology.My biggest disappointment was provoked by the failure to fulfill the apparent promises contained in the two introductory chapters on approaches to family studies and theories of the family. One expected that the editors' early remarks--"Perhaps the family is coming apart" (p 3) and "The family is, perhaps, the most central institution in society" (p 4)--might become central themes of what was to come, and might be picked up again in some kind of conclusion. Alas, this did not prove to be the case--indeed, there is no conclusion to tie the volume into a coherent package, and each chapter stands firmly on its own (which, I concede, is both a strength and a weakness). In the theory chapter Vinovskis and McCall present a good overview of some of the problems and controversies in theoretical approaches to family studies. They provide a short but penetrating critique of the latest fad, life course analysis, "which focuses on the individual rather than the family" (p 21) and therefore "too often consider[s] only the experiences within families" (p 22). The authors subsequent call for an approach which more clearly links sociological and historical approaches--a sort of theoretical and methodological interpenetration--pleased me. The subsequent articles, by and large, responded to that call, but not with as much clarity of intention and purpose as one might have expected.The chapters which pleased me most, probably due to the sociologist in me, also left me frustrated. The three excellent chapters on more recent times--Wandersee's on families in the Great Depression, Sealander's on the War and the Baby Boom, and Mintz's on the family from 1955 to the present--were finally disappointing. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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