Healthy American families : a progressive alternative to the religious right / John H. Scanzoni.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

PART I. VOICES FROM THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT PAST -- 1. Families in Flux versus the Myth of a Golden Age -- 2. Chipping Away at Sexual Traditions: Pre-1960s -- PART II. IDEAS FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW -- 3. Work and Parenting for Men and Women: Something Old, Something New -- 4. Human Sexuality: From Taboo to Celebration -- 5. Partnering: Love is Where it's At -- 6. Parenting All Our Children: A Mission for Americans of Goodwill -- 7. Ten Guidelines for Healthy Families in the New Century.

""The phrase c̀ulture wars' has come to encompass the subjects, persons, and institutions involved in the more polarizing conflicts in American public values of recent decades. In typical discussions of the culture wars, such subject areas as religion, abortion, immigration, and education are well explained and balanced with an emphasis on recent decisions of the Supreme Court. McGough, a senior editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, more often simply relates the content and development of antagonistic views in an evenhanded, if pat, presentation. His sketches of persons, foundations, and institutions that furnish the effort, ideas, and resources behind the debates are useful and set this volume apart from others like it."" "There is no question that the idea of family has changed throughout history, especially during the 20th century. With the very concept in flux, how can we develop a vision of family that is moral, workable, and makes sense in the 21st-century, postindustrial world?" "Rejecting the definition of family promulgated by the Religious Right, Healthy American Families: A Progressive Alternative to the Religious Right offers an innovative approach to understanding 21st-century families. Proactive rather than reactive, it explores the ways families have changed over the past 200 years and builds on that to elucidate the larger forces that continue to redefine male and female roles and the shape of the modern family unit." "Part one of the book shows that the Religious Right's claim that a Golden Age of Families existed when our country began is fallacious. Instead, families have been changing since the days of the Puritans. Part two picks up the threads to show how, in the wake of those changes, most of today's families are "healthier" than families at the time of our country's founding. Healthy families, the book asserts, spring from a blend of "conservative" ideals (responsibility and accountability) and "liberal" ideals (innovation and change). The result is "responsible change" that benefits both the individual and society."--BOOK JACKET.