Stephanie Coontz

The way we never were is a dense book about family structures throughout American history backed up by substantial sociological, family science, and economic research. The main thesis is that family structures change in response to macroeconomic trends, rather than causing these trends (i.e. a "break down" of family values can't be blamed for increased rates of poverty, rather, increased poverty precipitates families forming different arrangements to adapt to economic pressures). If you read the book, definitely read the 2016 edition because the prologue and epilogue provide updates on economic and sociological trends since the book was first published in the 90s and are in fact, probably the most important parts of the book. Also, despite the listed pagination, the book is really only about 400 pages of text, with almost another 200 of notes and bibliography.… (meer)