Labor's love lost : the rise and fall of the working-class family in America / Andrew J. Cherlin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cherlin, Andrew J., 1948- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class families--United States--History.

Working class families.

Working class--United States--History.

Working class.

History.

United States.

Families--United States--History.

Families.

Physical Description:

xiii, 258 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Russell Sage Foundation, [2014]

Summary:

Labor's Love Lost offers a new historical assessment of the rise and fall of working-class families in America, demonstrating how momentous social and economic transformations have contributed to the collapse of this once-stable social class and what this seismic cultural shift means for the nation's future. Drawing from more than a hundred years of census data, noted sociologist Andrew Cherlin shows that the primary problem of the fall of the working-class family from its mid-twentieth century peak is not that the male-breadwinner family has declined, but that nothing stable has replaced it. The breakdown of a stable family structure has serious consequences for low-income families, particularly for children, many of whom underperform in school, thereby reducing their future employment prospects and perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of economic disadvantage. Cherlin's investigation of today's "would-be working class" shines a much-needed spotlight on the struggling middle of our society. Book jacket.

Contents:

The emergence of the working-class family, 1800 to 1899

Good times and hard times : 1900 to 1945

The peak years, 1945 to 1975

The fall: 1975 to 2010

The would-be working-class today

What is to be done?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-243) and index.

ISBN:

9780871540300

0871540304

OCLC:

887186355