Public and Private Families: An Introduction
By:
Andrew Cherlin
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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
Nationally recognized for its sound scholarship and balanced approach and written by one of the leading authorities in the field, this text examines the family through two lenses: the familiar private family in which we live most of our personal lives, and the public family in which we, as adults, deal with broader societal issues such as the care of the elderly, the increase in divorce, and childbearing outside of marriage. The book looks at intimate personal concerns, such as whether to marry, as well as societal concerns, such as governmental policies that affect families. Distinctive chapters � Chapter 9, �Children and Parents;� Chapter 10, �The Elderly and Their Families;� and Chapter 14, �The Family, the State and Social Policy� � examine issues of great current interest, such as income assistance to poor families, the effects of out-of-home childcare, and the costs of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Lacks Kinship Theory - I am a Sociology professor in a distance learning university. I have selected this text (fifth edition) to use in my class in Sociology of the Family . This is an excellent textbook and is supported by a great deal of research. The material is written in an interesting manner for students with many photographs and statistics.
However, while this is a text of 2006, I find a critical weakness - in that the topic of kinship is sketchily addressed by the author and then within the section of Social Class .The Billingsley theory of Kinship legitimizes genealogy as a whole field of inquiry in higher education and the conclusions drawn from the study of the power of kinship should most certainly be addressed in this textbook of the Sociology of the Family. Dr. Carolyn Billingsley's research and theoretical framework of kinship in her book, Communities of Kinship, Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier of 2004, shows howThomas Keesee Sr. 's many descendants through time and the power of kinship controlled and shaped migration and settlement patterns of the south in religion, economics and political power. Billingsley makes an excellent case for kinship as a distinct category of analysis similar to race, class and gender. I would hope to see this important current research and exciting theory which is a breakthrough in genealogy, addressed in the next edition of Cherlin's Sociology of the Family textbook.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Recommended - I am a Sociology and Psychology double major taking a Bachelor's level Marriage and Family sociology class, and I think this book is great! Many textbooks, even in sociology(!), can be dull, but I am finding this book to be a very good read. Very informative and thought-provoking. Statistics in the forms of graphs and tables are also helpful. I also think viewing the family as having a "public" and "private" dimension is valuable and relevant. It's also well-organized and seems to cover all the bases. In response to the previous review, I don't find the material difficult. There's a brief summary in the form of bullet points at the end of every section and every chapter! Doesn't get much more straight-forward than that. I also tend to sell back my books, but I think I will keep this one as a resource. No complaints really, I will think about it over the course of the semester.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Great textbook, but too challenging for my students - This review is from the perspective of a sociology instructor and refers to the 4th edition of the textbook and reader. I've used this pair of texts twice in a Sociology of Family course at a medium-size, medium-quality Midwestern university. The textbook is the most accurate, complete, well-organized, and sociological of the many family textbooks I've reviewed. However, I don't plan to use it again. It is too challenging for my students. Cherlin assumes a basic knowledge of sociological concepts and social facts that my students don't have. They become confused and frustrated when reading. There is a good website associated with the textbook that gives students study help, but I can't use the instructor version because of bad publisher customer service (tech support and my publisher's rep have been passing the buck about who should help me for the past month). I'd recommend this book if your students have the basics in place before the course starts. I plan to look for something written for students who don't. UPDATE Spring Semester 2008: I am still using the newer edition of this text and reader and providing more basic-sociology and explaining-Cherlin's-points during lecture. I haven't found anything I like better but am still looking. Website problems are ongoing and publisher support continues to be nil.
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