Fatherhood in America

A History

Author: Robert L. Griswold
ISBN: 9780465001408

From conservative hopes for the return of Old Testament patriarchs to "wildmen" searching for lost fathers, from deadbeat dads to "daddy trackers", the cultural meaning of fatherhood has become highly contested. Fatherhood in America is the first full-scale historical analysis of men's lives as parents. Illuminating the critical connection between fatherhood and male identity, this book explores the vital relationship between fathers, the men's movement, and feminism. Using intimate revelations from diaries and letters, prescriptive exhortations in popular magazines, impersonal social scientific surveys, and the superheated transcripts of congressional hearings, the book shows how the nineteenth-century patriarch, a man whose position as "breadwinner" was more or less unquestioned, has given way to the late twentieth-century "Dad", a man who, more often than not, shares the breadwinning burden with his wife. Fatherhood in America probes the economic, political, cultural, and demographi

Publisher: BasicBooks
Publish Date: 1993

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Parenting / Fatherhood

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Men/Masculinities)