Description
Book SynopsisA generation ago Americans undertook a revolutionary experiment to redefine marriage. The results of this experiment separating marriage from childrearing are in, and they are bad news for children and for the country as a whole. The family upheaval has hit African-Americans especially hard. We forgot what American marriage was designed to do: it ordered lives by giving the young a meaningful life script. It supported middle-class foresight, planning, and self-sufficiency. And it organized men and women around The Mission—nurturing their children's cognitive, emotional, and physical development. It is The Mission that separates middle-class kids from their less-parented and lower-achieving peers. In fact our great family experiment threatens to turn what the founders imagined as an opportunity-rich republic of equal citizens into a hereditary caste society.
Trade ReviewKay Hymowitz thoughtfully takes on the minimalists who say a marriage is just a shack-up plus a piece of paper. Her elegant essays show that marriage is an essential culture-preserver, poverty-fighter, and life-improver. -- Marvin Olasky, editor–in–chief, World News Group * WORLD *
America could save itself a lot of trouble by paying attention to what [Hymowitz] writes. -- Theodore Dalrymple, author of Our Culture, What’s Left of It
A sobering investigation of the widening gap in the American social structure that's being caused by new attitudes toward marriage. -- Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution
The most fascinating (but grimmest) sections...deal with child-rearing skills in unmarried America. -- Charlotte Hays * The Wall Street Journal *
Marriage and Caste in America should provoke serious thought about how marriage has become a class issue—and what we can do about it. -- Christine B. Whelan * New York Post *
Essential. -- David Brooks * The New York Times *
Hymowitz...has concluded that the family revolution [is both] bad news for children [and] has had the effect of stratifying the country as a whole. * Steve Goddard's History Wire *
Hymowitz provides an arresting diagnosis of American social ills. -- Cheryl Miller * The American Conservative *
Hymowitz has the gift of being able to convey complicated ideas, theories, and history in lucid and witty language. -- Lisa Schiffren * COMMENTARY *
A strong case for the value of marriage. * Today's Machine World *
A short and readable volume.... Hymowitz has surely contributed...to creating the present hopeful moment for mainstream America. -- Claudia Anderson * The Weekly Standard *
Kay Hymowitz makes a persuasive case in Marriage and Caste in America that the best social program is actually marriage. -- David Forsmark * Front Page Magazine *
[The author] has the gift of being able to convey complicated ideas, theories, and history in language that is lucid and-most precious of all in discussions of marriage and family-witty. It is a pleasure to read her essays....an intelligent, compelling case....Clear and forceful conclusions about what is missing from the impoverished lives that she describes so well. * Book Review Digest *
Hymowitz cogently lays out a case that when it comes to reducing poverty, economics and family structure can't be separated. * Newsobserver.Com *
Beautifully written tour de force of contemporary American family life. -- W Bradford Wilcox, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and fellow of the Witherspoon Institute * First Things *
Powerful...unflinching...analysis of this crisis of the black abandonment of marriage. -- Gregory J. Sullivan * Evening Bulletin *
[A] fascinating and informational [book] that you ought to read. -- Dr. Laura Schlessinger
