Elizabeth A. Carter

Either this book got less radical, or I got more radical as I read it. This is a collaboration of chapters from various different authors--all around the theme of the life cycle.

The focus that I saw in this book was that there are many factors that influence one's life. Culture, class, siblings, divorce, sexual orientation, substance abuse, violence are a few.

The reason I say this book is radical is that, at the beginning of the book, it seemed ultra-feminist. I consider myself pretty show more liberal and open minded, but being constantly hit over the head with "Women have it so bad compared to men" a million times in one paragraph (maybe an exageration), I had trouble reading it. Thankfully, the book did not stay that way the entire time, and there was some very interesting things to learn.

A bigger problem I felt was how outdated the research in the book was (ready for a new edition!).

And, for all that it said about multiculturalism--there was NO mention of Native Americans in ANY chapter. Talk about marginalizing a group. In the chapter that was devoted to culture and the life cycle, the authors even broke out an "Irish" and "Jewish" group...but NOTHING on Native Amricans...this is the more unforgivable thing... show less

Either this book got less radical, or I got more radical as I read it. This is a collaboration of chapters from various different authors--all around the theme of the life cycle.

The focus that I saw in this book was that there are many factors that influence one's life. Culture, class, siblings, divorce, sexual orientation, substance abuse, violence are a few.

The reason I say this book is radical is that, at the beginning of the book, it seemed ultra-feminist. I consider myself pretty show more liberal and open minded, but being constantly hit over the head with "Women have it so bad compared to men" a million times in one paragraph (maybe an exageration), I had trouble reading it. Thankfully, the book did not stay that way the entire time, and there was some very interesting things to learn.

A bigger problem I felt was how outdated the research in the book was (ready for a new edition!).

And, for all that it said about multiculturalism--there was NO mention of Native Americans in ANY chapter. Talk about marginalizing a group. In the chapter that was devoted to culture and the life cycle, the authors even broke out an "Irish" and "Jewish" group...but NOTHING on Native Amricans...this is the more unforgivable thing... show less