Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families

Not only did I receive the book very quickly, the seller personally made sure I had gotten it. Thanks for the great work!

This isn't a bad book. It's a compilation of readings regarding contemporary families. A lot of focus is on feminism and gay and lesbian families. If you can read it with an open mind (not necessarily have to change your mind) then it can be interesting and educational. Some readings are better than others and I think this depends on you interest. I personally liked the readings on working families and grandparents.

I chose this book for my 200-level family sociology class instead of a text book. Most of my students were not sociology majors, but most enjoyed the readings from this book. It is not a textbook! I suggest either covering more introductory and general material in lectures or pairing with a textbook and using the readings in this anthology to flesh out specific issues and topics in the study of family sociology. I found that it included topics, such as gay and lesbian parenting or absentee parenting, that were difficult to find in other readers. As another reviewer already touched on, I also appreciated the integration of race, gender, class and sexuality throughout the book, rather than a special chapter at the end of a general section on each topic. A few drawbacks: (1) I found that I had to supplement with outside readings for my section on abuse - the readings included were too specialized/not what I was looking for in this topic; (2) there were no readings with a more international or transnational focus; and (3) unlike, for example, Andrew Cherlin's reader, this one did not include samples of what conservative perspectives on family diversity and trends look like. Otherwise, I found this to be an excellent reader.

I have used this book in my 200 level Sociology of Families courses. The students enjoy most of the readings but there are a few that are overly technical and/or assume the student has a background in the topic. Despite these issues, overall I feel it is one of the better families readers on the market now. Chapters are diverse and do not "tokenized" issues like race, class, sexuality, and gender in "special" sections. My students really enjoyed the different perspectives and qualitative studies she chose to include.