Changes in the American Family

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As we have learned through Skolnick’s book, as well as Rubin’s research, the make up of the family is influenced by many factors. The economy, culture, education, ethnicity/race, and tradition all help to create the modern family. The last few decades have heavily influenced the family structure, and while some try to preserve the past, others embrace the future. Through it all, we find you can have both. The first part of Rubin’s book dealt with “the Invisible Americans.” One of the most thought provoking statements from the beginning, states: “Indeed, one of the surprising findings of this study is how much in common all these families have, how much agreement they would find among themselves- even about some of the hottest racial issues of the day- if they could put away the stereotypes and hostilities that separate them and listen to each other talk. For if we set aside race, there’s far more to unite working-class families than there is to divide them.” (15) For me, this set the tone for the book. More than once, someone from this study who was of a different culture or race then me, said something I know I had thought or even said before. I found it interesting because with some of them, I thought I was the only one who would feel that way; that it was a problem specific to one group. Rubin’s research shows that a lot can happen in just one generation. Much has been spoken lately of what Tom Brokaw has declared “The Greatest Generation;” those who fought in WWII. These Americans came back from the war, started families, and worked hard to achieve “The All American Dream.” But somewhere they must have missed something because this generation is the generation that produced the “pot smoking, free love hippies” who then produced the adults in Rubin’s study. What changed so much with a generation that was the epitome of hard work, discipline, and structure? Stephanie Coontz’s article, “What We Really Miss about the 1950’s” addresses that. The world between 1920-1950 is not what we think. There was a high murder rate, a substantial divorce rate, and “an older generation of neighbors or relatives who tried to tell them how to run their lives and raise their kids.” (Skolnick 33) It’s this sense that their children see the world so differently that’s so hard for working-class parents. “For it seems to say that now, along with ... ... middle of paper ... ... Really Miss about the 1950s” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 31-39 Kamen, Paula. “Modern Marriage: From Meal Ticket to Best Friend” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003 152-160 Laner, Mary Riege. Ventrone, Nicole A. “Dating Scripts Revisted” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 143-151 Newman, Katherine S. “Family Values Against the Odds” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 320-334 Rubin, Lillian B. Families on the Fault Line, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1994 Taylor, Ronald L. “Diversity within African American Families” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 365-388 Zinn, Maxine Baca. Wells, Barbara. “Diversity Within Latino families: New Lessons for Family Social Science” Family in Transition. Ed. Arlene Skolnick and Jermone H. Skolnick: Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 389-414

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