A timely and urgent argument for preserving the work that connects us in the age of automation"A compelling case for valuing care as a societal good and as skilled labor."—The NationWith the rapid development of artificial intelligence and labor-saving technologies like self-checkouts and automated factories, the future of work has never been more uncertain, and even jobs requiring high levels of human interaction are no longer saf...

Even as they see their wages go down and their buying power decrease, many parents are still putting their kids' material desires first. These parents struggle with how to handle children's consumer wants, which continue unabated despite the economic downturn. And, indeed, parents and other adults continue to spend billions of dollars on children every year. Why do children seem to desire so much, so often, so soon, and why do parents capitulate so readily? To determine what forces lie beh...

A New York Times bestseller and “a passionate, urgent” (The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility.Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. We Americans have always believed that ...

People who are single are changing the face of America. Did you know that:* More than 40 percent of the nation's adults---over 87 million people---are divorced, widowed, or have always been single.* There are more households comprised of single people living alone than of married parents and their children.* Americans now spend more of their adult years single than married.Many of today's single people have engaging jobs, homes that they own, and a network of ...

Women are constantly being told that it's simply too difficult to balance work and family, so if they don't really "have to" work, it's better for their families if they stay home. Not only is this untrue, Leslie Bennetts says, but the arguments in favor of stay-at-home motherhood fail to consider the surprising benefits of work and the unexpected toll of giving it up. It's time, she says, to get the message across -- combining work and family really is the best choice for most wo...

Calls for renewed moral education in America's schools, offering dozens of programs schools can adopt to teach students respect, responsibility, hard work, and other values that should not be left to parents to teach.

**A brilliant examination of how Betty Friedan’s revolutionary book The Feminine Mystique liberated women in the 1960s—and what it means to women today.“An illuminating analysis of the book that helped launch the movement that freed women to participate more fully in American society.” —Wall Street Journal**In 1963, Betty Friedan unleashed a storm of controversy with her bestselling book, The Feminine Mystique. In A Strange Stirring, accl...

Aboriginal families and communities are losing their children to child welfare systems at an alarming rate. Such children have very poor futures to look forward to; rejection, abuse and belonging to nowhere are too often the fate of children in care. Academic failure, poor self-esteem and loss of identity accompany them, often right into life on the streets, experiencing lateral violence, homelessness, crime and ultimately jail, where 70 % of inmates are former children in care. This trage...

Life for emerging adults is vastly different today than it was for their counterparts even a generation ago. Young people are waiting longer to marry, to have children, and to choose a career direction. As a result, they enjoy more freedom, opportunities, and personal growth than ever before. But the transition to adulthood is also more complex, disjointed, and confusing. In Lost in Transition, Christian Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cros...

“If you fear that cultural, political, and class differences are tearing America apart, read this important book.” —Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D., author of The Righteous MindWho will rule in the twenty-first century: allegedly more disciplined Asians, or allegedly more creative Westerners? Can women rocket up the corporate ladder without knocking off the men? How can poor kids get ahead when schools favor the rich?As our planet gets smaller, cultural conflicts ar...

**The classic, myth-shattering history of the American family.“The Way We Never Were effectively demolishes the normal, traditional nuclear family as neither normal nor traditional, and not even nuclear.” ―Nation**Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man’s home has never been his castle, the “male breadwinner marriage” is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. I...

An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.