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Title: The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz ISBN: 0-465-09097-4 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: August, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.05 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Reality bites
Comment: Television and our collective, if faulty, memory, leaves us with the impression that if our families could just get back to "the good old days" then everything would be great. Unfortunately, we are remembering a day that never existed, except on television. Coontz write not to attack families, but to encourage us to seek after a realistic model of family life, rather than an unworkable fantasy.
This book provides detailed history on the changing family in America. Particularly interesting is the many parallels between the family of the late 19th century, and that of the late 20th. Interesting statistics combined with amusing anecdotes make this book an excellent read.
Nick Kasoff - WGNU Radio, St. Louis
Rating: 5
Summary: A must-read!
Comment: This book is a gem! Here is a thoroughly researched explanation of many of the attitudes toward family that pervade the American psyche today and keep us from moving forward. Growing up in a "broken" home, under non-traditional circumstances, I always felt like a freak -- like my family and I were substandard. I looked upon my parents as failures. As I read this book, I came to understand what they were up against as a young couple coming of age in the '50's -- trying to live up to an unrealistic and, ultimately, detrimental image of what a family was supposed to be. Thank you, Ms. Coontz, for allowing me to see my parents as people, and to find a new love and respect for them. And, for helping me to reconsider my own value system.
Rating: 5
Summary: Busting Propaganda
Comment: The mindset of so many regarding the "good old days" is the very reason why so many people NEED to read this book! The only difference between now, the 1950's, the Victorian era, and any other time in history is that now we are exposed to reality (and propaganda) at a higher and faster rate than ever before (via mass media and other technology). Yes, I'd like to go back to the 50's - when fathers and grandfathers could abuse their children and wives and neighbors would turn the other way, when "perfect" mothers lived on dexedrine and valium and martinis made everyone's lives a little more bearable. When "unwed" mothers (forget the unwed fathers who happened to be part of the picture) were shunned, hidden, and sent away and the subject was so taboo that even reality couldn't shed light on it. Besides - teen sex? Who needed it when you got married at the ripe old ages of 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18?! And prostitution? Come on, prostitution has been around since biblical times, and pornography for almost as long. Of course, in the minds of those who "revere" the good old days (whose attitude is REALLY one of "I'm better than you are"), prostitution was and is a stigma on WOMEN, and neglects to mention that each act of heterosexual prostitution also involves a MAN. And hey, who wouldn't want a little opium in their pain reliever or a little "coke" in their soda. Wake up! Human nature and behavior have NOT changed significantly in the past few centuries. Any reasonable, open-minded look into the REAL history (not the idealized or romanticized version) of families, relationships, marriage, and sex (as well as drugs and "rock & roll") will quickly prove to any intelligent person that it isn't human nature that has changed, it is technology (well, that and ECONOMIC INEQUITY). If anything is "tearing families apart", it isn't the degradation of human nature, but the rapid increase of severe social, economic, and political disparity that does not allow families a stay at home parent (man or woman), time together, or any sense of economic security - and that, my friends, has NOTHING to do with sex or drugs. Bravo to Ms. Coontz for facing up to our ridiculous notions of the "good old days". I for one would rather know the truth any day than be trapped in some modern day version of Dante's cave, in which the only reality I would ever know or believe was the one that some other person chose to display to me. Come on, people, think for yourselves! And PLEASE, pass this book onto anyone and everyone you know (and there's a reward out for anyone who can get my grandfather to read it)!
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Title: Art For Beginners by Dani Cavallaro, Daniel Cavallaro ISBN: 0863162657 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: 21 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Norman Rockwell : A Life by LAURA CLARIDGE ISBN: 0812967232 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction by Linda Gordon ISBN: 067400535X Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Translating the Curriculum: Multiculturalism into Cultural Studies by Susan Huddleston Edgerton ISBN: 0415914019 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths by Russ Kick ISBN: 0966410076 Publisher: The Disinformation Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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