Families of a New World

From Prague to Tennessee to Brazil, it's hard to find a consensus on what constitutes an average family. In today's world, the nuclear family is rarely the standard family structure, if it ever was.Families of a New Worldbrings together an important collection of original works to examine our understanding of family around the world and how that understanding is shaped by state policy. Using examples from both historical and modern countries around the world, essays demonstrate not only how state policies shape what the family should look and act like, but also how governments have appropriated and regulated an approved "ideal" of the family to further their own agendas.

Lynne Haney is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University Lisa Pollard is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington