The Way We Never Were

“A treasure.”—Los Angeles Times

“Often brilliant and invariably provocative.”—New York Times Book Review

“Coontz approaches the subject of what we now insist upon calling ‘family values’ with what is, in the current atmosphere, a refreshing lack of partisan cant.”—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

“Historically rich, and loaded with anecdotal evidence, The Way We Never Were effectively demolishes the normal, traditional nuclear family as neither normal nor traditional, and not even nuclear.”

“Coontz presents fascinating facts and figures that explode the cherished myths about self-sufficient, happy, moral families.”—Newsday

“Coontz’s strength is in the way she shows that families of every era have been blamed for conditions beyond their control.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A wonderfully perceptive, myth-debunking report .... An important contribution to the current debate on family values.”—Publishers Weekly

“Clear, incisive, and distinguished by Coontz’s personal conviction and by its vast range of cogent examples, including capsule histories of women in the labor force and of black families. Fascinating, persuasive, politically relevant.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Coontz persuasively dispels the myths and stereotypes of ‘traditional’ family values as the product of the postwar era.”—Library Journal

“Stephanie Coontz is a national treasure. Her work, always solidly grounded in the best and most comprehensive research, is consistently groundbreaking. She changes the way we understand the past, present, and the future. What’s more, her new paradigms change the way we live and work!”—Ellen Galinsky, president, Families and Work Institute

“Stephanie Coontz has her finger on the pulse of contemporary families like no one else in America.”—Paula England, 2015 President, American Sociological Association