The family in global transition

It should not be accepted a priori that the institution of the family is in decline or dying. Yet both liberals and conservatives tend to start with assertions - yes, the family is collapsing or, no, it is merely changing - to which they attribute empirical validity.

Anderson's reader gives us an excellent overview of this debate, and much more. Some of the contributing authors are on the "left," - favoring homosexual marriages (Pfluger); viewing the traditional bourgeois family as oppressive, racist, and sexist (Perry); or questioning the decline thesis and expressing a more optimistic view (Garrett).

Other articles assume a more conservative stance - criticizing gender feminism (Lanca) or homosexuality (Khattab), viewing the late twentieth century Western family with great concern (Elshtain and Davies), or deploring the rapid rise in fatherlessness (Pearlstein). Others travel a middle road, seeing both perils and promise for the future (Pournelle).

Most of the articles consist of solid, scholarly presentations about the family as an institution throughout history - tribal society, antiquity, the Middle Ages, the modern era - and throughout the contemporary world - Africa, China, India, the Middle East, Latin America, the former Eastern bloc and the West.