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Loading... Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Ageby Kay S. Hymowitz
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A generation ago Americans undertook a revolutionary experiment to redefine marriage. Where historically men and women had sought a loving bond, largely centered on the rearing of children, the new arrangement called for an intimate--and provisional--union of two adults. Now, as Kay Hymowitz argues in Marriage and Caste in America, the results of this experiment separating marriage from childrearing are in, and they turn out to be bad news not only for children but also, in ways little understood, for the country as a whole. The family revolution has played a central role in a growing inequality and high rates of poverty, even during economic good times. The family upheaval has hit African-Americans especially hard, Ms. Hymowitz shows, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan had famously predicted it would. While for decades feminists and academics toyed with the myth of the strong single black mother supported by kinship networks, black men drifted into fatherhood without being husbands, without even becoming part of a family, while black children were left behind. When Americans began their family revolution, they forgot to consider what American marriage was designed to do: it ordered lives by giving the young a meaningful life script. It supported middle-class foresight, planning, and self-sufficiency. And it organized men and women around "The Mission"--nurturing their children's cognitive, emotional, and physical development. More than anything, Ms. Hymowitz writes, it is The Mission that separates middle-class kids--who for all their overscheduling are doing very well indeed--from their less-parented and lower-achieving peers. In fact our great family experiment threatens to turn what the founders imagined as an opportunity-rich republic of equal citizens into a hereditary caste society. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.81086Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Marriage and Parenting MarriageLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.5)
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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The title also bothers me. I don't like to think that there are castes in America. For obvious reasons. But this book and this year's experience have taught me differently. However, I also find her commentary on the American economy in her Feminism and concluding chapter to be most enlightening on that subject as well.
And now, let me address 3 conclusions you might jump to if you judge this book by its cover.
1: This book is religious.
Religious this is not. Hymowitz clearly stipulates in the beginning that she is not religious. And that, apart from a couple of mentions of religious culture being a "cause" of marital expectations in history, was basically that. No- this is not a religious commentary. But that didn't keep me from projecting my personal religious beliefs on her thoughts.
2. This book doesn't provide any new information.
Maybe-- but that depends on the studies you've read. I would say that this book provides a view of the benefits of families from the children's point of view. Too many studies, and the "why" behind this is addressed as well, only focus on the couple-- leaving the children completely out of the situation. But this reverses the trend. I would have liked her to write about the abuse problem a little bit more. But then this is me with the #MeToo movement still making headlines.
3: ONLY READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU KNOW ME
Again, I would say no. If anything, this book points to culture as it was in 1850-60 America as a large obstacle in surmounting poverty today. To be sure, Hymowitz looks specifically at inner city families, the uneven numbers that fill our jails, etc. But she also spends time looking at immigrants and their struggles. Her focus is poverty, the inequality that it brings, and its elimination.* If I've interpreted the topic incorrectly, let me know (because I honestly didn't mean to offend or misread).
*I read an article the other day about inter-generational PTSD that also seemed to tie in. (