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American Families: A Multicultural Reader, 2nd ed. Stephanie Coontz (with Maya Parson and Gabrielle Raley), Ed. New York: Routledge. 2008. 488 pp. ISBN: 0415958219. $45.00 (paper).
Families have always been in flux, and family diversity is here to stay. This theme reverberates throughout American Families: A Multicultural Reader, edited by Stephanie Coontz, with Maya Parson and Gabrielle Raley. The second edition of Coontz's 1999 volume is timely, considering both the marked increase in scholarly research on family diversity in recent years as well as the flurry of media attention (some of it misleading) surrounding the 2000 Census results. Although the views of family scholars diverge as to how to best conceptualize family diversity (Harris, 2008) or what the various consequences and implications of family diversity may be, there is a growing consensus that there has never been a "prototypical American family" (Fischer & Hout, 2006, p. 57). The leading family researchers represented in Coontz's excellent volume embrace this consensus, bringing valuable analytical and historical perspective to the study of diverse families.
Furthermore, the volume goes beyond a mere celebration of family diversity. It avoids the pitfalls of some edited volumes by providing a clear conceptual focus and theoretical framework. Taken as a whole, the 34 articles demand that we theorize diversity and why it matters. Most of the authors provide guideposts for using the knowledge gained about diverse families to advance our thinking about families more generally. In the introduction, Coontz argues that the book (i.e., "a multicultural reader on families rather than a reader on family diversity per se") highlights "patterns of difference created by conflict, accommodation, and interaction among groups of differing power, cultural acceptance, and socioeconomic status" (p. 2). This multicultural anthology foregrounds how group differences in power, status, and resources shape family values and behaviors, emphasizing the relations among diverse groups.
Multidisciplinary in content and tone, the volume integrates findings from both qualitative and quantitative studies in an impressive range of fields, especially history, sociology, and anthropology....