The Way We Really Are

With a historically informed perspective, this classic book illuminates how every type of modern family—even the “nontraditional” ones—can find strength and success.

“Coontz’s book should offer reassurance to people in every kind of family muddling through every stressful stage.” ―New York Times 

Stefanie Coontz offers a guide to the causes and consequences of today’s family trends, demonstrating that a historically informed perspective can be as helpful in sorting through many family dilemmas as going into therapy and much more help than listening to today’s political debates. Every kind of family, Coontz shows, has strengths that can be fostered and vulnerabilities to be avoided. Stepfamilies, dual-earner couples, single-parent families, and divorced but cooperative families all operate in different ways, but with the right economic, cultural, and social support systems, all incarnations of the family can succeed.

Called “brilliant and invariably provocative” by the New York Times and “a treasure” by the Los Angeles Times, Stephanie Coontz has emerged as one of our preeminent social historians. The Way We Really Are will change the ways families think of themselves and their futures.