Families in America

In this accessible, engaging, and up-to-date course book,&#160;Susan&#160;L. Brown&#160;employs ethnographic vignettes and demographic data to introduce students to twenty-first century perspectives on contemporary&#160;families.&#160;Appropriate as a primary or secondary text in classes on&#160;family and marriage, this book probes momentous shifts in the definition of family, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and policy debates on welfare reform and work-family issues.&#160;Brown also explores the rise in nonmarital childbearing and single-mother&#160;families&#160;and the decline of &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; marriage by delving into the historical roots of&#160;family&#160;change, current trends of&#160;family&#160;formation and dissolution, and the implications of&#160;family&#160;change for the well-being of adults and children. With a lens toward socioeconomic inequality and racial-ethnic variation in&#160;family&#160;patterns,&#160;<I>Families&#160;in&#160;America</I>&#160;illustrates how&#160;family diversity is now the norm.<BR /><BR /><I>The Sociology in the Twenty-First Century series introduces students to a range of sociological issues of broad interest in the United States today, with each volume addressing topics such as family, race, immigration, gender, education, and social inequality. These books&mdash;intended for classroom use&mdash;will highlight findings from current, rigorous research and demographic data while including stories about people&rsquo;s experiences to illustrate major themes in an accessible manner. Learn more about the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/series/stfc/sociology-in-the-twenty-first-century" target="_blank">Sociology in the Twenty-First Century Series</a>.&#160;</I><BR />