Flattering Review from Choice

This is a nice review of my book on the American family from Choice, a publication that helps librarians select books for their libraries.



Historian del Mar (Portland State Univ.; Beaten Down: A History of Interpersonal Violence in the West, CH, Oct'03, 41-1131) is an innovative thinker and writer, and his book deserves to be read carefully by those who wonder how the US came to be the way it is today. Del Mar seems to know, charting vast changes experienced by various ethnic groups over time as family ties, kinship, and community have eroded and a contemporary "culture of self-actualization" has evolved. In the past, the preoccupation with freedom bore with it a sense of obligation to one's mate and family, but now freedom for many has taken a new direction, and through a variety of disruptive cultural alterations in values, there has been a "rise in familial and social fragmentation." People of color have suffered more and have been marginalized, particularly as del Mar heartbreakingly describes contemporary Native life on reservations and the plight of young black men. But the loss of values and interpersonal involvement cuts across all ethnic lines. An insightful book for those with interests in social, cultural, or family history. See also Laura L. Ellingson and Patricia J. Sotirin's Aunting: Cultural Practices That Sustain Family and Community Life (CH, Feb'11, 48-3350). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.