Stephanie Coontz, “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap” (Basic Books, 2000)

New Books in Sociology · May 10, 2012 · 47m

“My mother was a saint.” ” In my time, we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” “A man’s home is his castle.” “The home is the foundation of society.” These are just some of the romantic catchphrases that are commonly recited by those who claim that things just aren’t like they used to be in the “good old days.” In The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (Basic Books, 1992/2000), Stephanie Coontz exposes these ideals for what they are: myths that portray an inaccurate perception of the past and hinder current discussions about the present and future. Crime, for…