The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age by Allan C. Carlson


The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age
Title : The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0765805367
ISBN-10 : 9780765805362
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 208
Publication : First published September 8, 2003

The Family in America offers a fresh interpretation of American social history, emphasizing the vital role of the family and household autonomy and threats to both imposed by industrial organization and the state. Allan Carlson shows that the United States, rather than being born modern as a progressive consumerist society, was in fact founded as an agrarian society composed of independent households rooted in land, lineage, and hierarchy.

Carlson argues that family survival continues to be of paramount importance today. He critically examines five distinct strategies to restore a foundation for family life in industrial society, drawing on the insights of Frederic LePlay, Carle Zimmerman, and G. K. Chesterton. Carlson shows that family survival depends on the creation of meaningful, pre-modern household economies. This new edition includes an introduction by Allan Carlson, detailing the continued press of the industrial process onto the American family structure since initial publication of the book in 1993.