Synopses & Reviews
This bestselling marriage and family text combines a rigorous scholarly and applied approach with a unique theme especially relevant to today's dynamic global environment: "Making choices in a diverse society." The text achieves an excellent balance between the sociological and ecological or family systems theoretical perspectives, while including extensive coverage of family dynamics and interpersonal relationships. The authors use warmth, humor, and an engaging presentation to create a highly readable text that offers insightful perspectives on the diversity of our modern society, including different ethnic traditions and marriage and family alternatives.
About the Author
Mary Ann Lamanna is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She received her bachelor?s degree Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University (St. Louis) in political science, her master?s degree in sociology (minor in psychology) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame. Research and teaching interests include family, reproduction, and gender and law. She is the author of Emile Durkheim on the Family (Sage, 2002) and co-author of a book on Vietnamese refugees. She has articles in law, sociology, and medical humanities journals. Current research concerns the sociology of literature, specifically ?novels of terrorism? and a sociological analysis of Marcel Proust?s novel In Search of Lost Time. Professor Lamanna has two adult children, Larry and Valerie.Agnes Riedmann is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Stanislaus. She attended Clarke College, Dubuque. She received her bachelor?s degree from Creighton University and her doctorate from the University of Nebraska. Her professional areas of interest are theory, family, and the sociology of body image. She is author of Science That Colonizes: A Critique of Fertility Studies in Africa (Temple University Press, 1993). Dr. Riedmann spent academic year 2008-09 as a Fulbright Professor at the Graduate School for Social Research, affiliated with the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, where she taught courses in family, as well as in social policy and in globalization.
Table of Contents
Part I: A NEW LOOK AT FAMILIAR WORLDS. 1. Family Commitments: Making Choices in a Changing Society. 2. Exploring the Family. 3. American Families in Social Context. Part II: INDIVIDUALS and RELATIONSHIPS. 4. Our Gendered Identities. 5. Loving Ourselves and Others. 6. Our Sexual Selves. Part III: DEFINING YOUR MARRIAGE and FAMILY. 7. Marriage: From Social Institution to Private Relationship. 8. Nonmarital Living Arrangements: Living Alone, Same-Sex Couples, and Other Options. 9. Choosing a Marriage Partner, and the First Years of Marriage. Part IV: EXPERIENCING FAMILY COMMITMENT. 10. To Parent or Not to Parent. 11. Raising Children in a Diverse and Multicultural Society. 12. Work and Family. 13. Communication and Conflict. 14. Power and Violence in Marriages and Families. Part V: FAMILY CHANGE, CRISES, AND RESILIENCE. 15. Family Stress, Crises and Resilience. 16. Divorce: Before and After. 17. Remarriages and Stepfamilies. 18. Aging Families. Appendix A-G (online). Appendix H-I (online).