Posterity Lost
Progress, Ideology, and the Decline of the American Family
Published on 22. December 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-8476-8380-2 (ISBN)
Description
Has the American spirit of optimism disappeared? This original and provocative book provides a penetrating analysis of two developments which are revolutionizing late 20th century America. The decline of the American family and a waning faith in the Idea of Progress are in sharp contrast to our historic past. Richard T. Gill links these two significant developments by examining our changing attitudes to the future. Americans today increasingly focus on the short term instead of the long view, and the losers in this myopic process are both the family, which is responsible for rearing the future generation, and the Idea of Progress, which once guaranteed that future generations would enjoy increasingly happy and productive lives. Posterity Lost provides a thought-provoking examination of these disturbing developments and offers some hopeful suggestions for their reversal.
Reviews / Votes
A wise, wide-ranging and penetrating analysis of why marriage and the nuclear family in America are in such trouble, and what we can do about it. -- David Popenoe, author of <I>Life Without Father, Promises to Keep<I>, and <I>Disturbing the Nest No one who reads Posterity Lost will fail to learn from it. -- David Blankenhorn, author of Fatherless America A tour de force analysis of the current woes that have beset the American family -- Brigitte Berger, Boston University A subtle and deeply troubling analysis of the remarkable changes in family life in the past 30 years, and the concurrent uneasiness that is so widespread in contemporary society, despite our great economic, scientific and technological successes. It's a very good book. -- Nathan Glazer, Harvard University School of Education Gill has written a book of the first importance about the central concern of American society, the sudden, unprecedented, altogether unanticipated collapse of the 'traditional' family structure. A superbly insightful work. * Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan * Posterity Lost will be one of the most influential treatments of family change in this decade. -- Norval D. Glenn * American Journal of Sociology * Gill has wonderful insights sprinkled throughout the book, page after page. -- Patrick Fagan, William H. Fitzgerald Fellow, The Heritage Foundation * Crisis *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8476-8380-2 (9780847683802)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard T. Gill held several teaching and administrative positions at Harvard over a period of twenty-two years. He is the author of numerous books, including Evolution of Modern Economics, Economics and the Public Interest, and Great Debates in Economics. He has also published short stories in the Atlantic and The New Yorker. He divides his time between Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Chocorua, New Hampshire.
Content
Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Introduction Part 4 Part I. The Problem: Family Breakdown and Its Relation to Progress Chapter 5 In Disarray: The American Family Approaching Year 2000 Chapter 6 The Future at Risk: The Consequences of Family Breakdown Chapter 7 Why Conventional Explanations Are Incomplete Chapter 8 The Crucial Role of the Ideology of Progress Part 9 Part II. The Paradox: Rise and Fall of the Idea of Progress Chapter 10 How the Process Gave Rise to the Idea Chapter 11 The First Great Predicament of Progress Chapter 12 A "Horrible Capacity for Mass Annihilation" Chapter 13 Limits-to-Growth Predicaments Chapter 14 The Fundamental Predicament of Progress Chapter 15 Decline and Fall of the Idea of Progress Part 16 Part III. The Battle: The War Over Family Values Chapter 17 Family Values: Evolution or Revolution? A Major Battleground: Self vs. Posterity Chapter 18 Equality, Family Advantages, and Moral Relativism Chapter 19 Reclaiming the Family: Principles and Programs Chapter 20 We Can Act, But Will We?