Enduring Bonds - by Philip N Cohen

About the Book

"Modern families provide essential support for happiness and well-being, but they are also engines of inequality, between men and women, between adults and children, and also between those who have supportive families and those who don't. The ability to successfully manage a family life is a modern marker of individual competence, and any failure risks social scorn and stigma. This collection of essays, tied to events in the news and using original demographic data with intuitive graphics, addresses the place of families in our system of inequality, the politics of family structure and change, the role of gender differentiation and segregation in family inequality, and the intersection of families with other forms of inequality"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In Enduring Bonds, Philip N. Cohen, renowned sociologist and blogger of the wildly popular and insightful Family Inequality, examines the complex landscape of today's diverse families. Through his interpretive lens and lively discussions, Cohen encourages us to alter our point of view on families, sharing new ideas about the future of marriage, the politics of research, and how data can either guide or mislead us. Deftly balancing personal stories and social science research, and accessibly written for students, Cohen shares essays that tie current events to demographic data. Class-tested in Cohen's own lectures and courses, Enduring Bonds challenges students to think critically about the role of families, gender, and inequality in our society today.

From the Back Cover

"A must read. ... Whether you agree with all his conclusions or not, you can absolutely trust Philip Cohen's data and his integrity."--Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap

"Cohen pulls no punches, exposing sloppy science, bad policy, and persistent prejudices."-- Lisa Wade, author of American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus.

"Engaged social science at its best. ... Cohen represents the best our profession has to offer on some of the most pressing social, cultural, and economic issues of our turbulent times."--William T. Bielby, University of Illinois, Chicago, and former President, American Sociological Association

Review Quotes

"Containing a wealth of statistics and over forty charts, the book gives the data that reflects both the complexity of
family life and the integration of politics with academic research in the USA."
-- "INTAMS journal Marriage, Families & Spirituality"

"Enduring Bonds was purposefully assembled to be read in the classroom . . . . but is written in very accessible plain-language prose that makes the work legible to the non-specialist while also not compromising on the rigor of analysis demanded by complex population-level data and assessment of policy success (or failure). Highly recommended to those interested in how socioeconomic inequality is transmuted through and by our families; our political moment, perhaps now more than ever, demands that we interrogate the question of who "gets to" be a family (and what families we do or don't protect, as a society) from an unapologetic position of social justice advocacy. Cohen offers useful data and arguments for us to draw on in that struggle." -- "Dosis"

About the Author

Philip N. Cohen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change and the Family Inequality blog. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic.