Reviews

Both titles provide well-researched information on the nature of the family in the United States today, and both agree that we cannot turn back in history to an earlier view of the family, but each has a different focus and message. Westheimer (the famous "Dr. Ruth," author of Encyclopedia of Sex, LJ 7/94) and Yagoda examine what constitutes a family, defined in the traditional sense of a household, and then recommend how the family can be helped by individuals, government, and business. The authors recognize many variations of the family, arguing that it may be headed by same-sex partners, unmarried partners, single parents, stepparents, or grandparents. They conclude, "We will never bolster the family if we insist that it has to fit the old-fashioned, and in many cases outdated, model." Ahern (a professional writer) and Bailey (psychology, Virginia Commonwealth Univ.), on the other hand, define family as the people we choose to support us in our daily lives, not those people in our household or related to us by blood. In their view, "Our modern society, with its dysfunctional families, easily dissolved s family as the people we choose to supporing population, is forcing us to become increasingly skillful in developing `kin-like' relations with an ever-increasing range of individuals." In their study of kinship from its ancient roots to the 1990s, they emphasize intentional communities formed by many ties‘work, neighborhood, the Internet, religious and social groups and show how to build such families. Both titles are recommended for public and undergraduate libraries.‘Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, Md.

Any realistic definition of the modern family, asserts bestselling sex therapist Westheimer, must include prominent roles for nurturing fathers, stepfamilies and grandparents, as well as for gay and lesbian parents. The so-called traditional nuclear family, she maintains, is largely an idealized fantasy that briefly predominated in the 1950s. Writing in the first person with Yagoda (Will Rogers: A Biography), Westheimer looks at tensions and ambivalences in the new extended family; assesses the negative impact of divorce and of absent fathers; surveys popular TV shows as mirrors of family life; and examines the special pressures on African American families. She revealingly discloses how her sense of family evolved out of personal experiences‘the deaths of her parents in the Holocaust, her flight from Nazi Germany, single motherhood in New York, two divorces followed by a happy marriage. She offers a practical guide to innovative private and government-funded family-support programs and sets forth policy proposals urging businesses and the federal government to help foster family solidarity and well-being. Finally, she outlines sensible steps for parents who want to implement a family-togetherness strategy. A humane, levelheaded, eye-opening look at changing family dynamics. Author tour. (July)