The Way We Never Were By Stephanie Coontz Summary

The extremely large and descriptive book, “The way we never were” by Stephanie Coontz. She was born in late August 1944. She is an author, historian, and professor at Evergreen State College teaching history and family studies and was a Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families from 2001-2004. She has authored and co-edited many books about the history of the family and marriage including “The way we never were”, “The way we really are” and many more award winning books.
“The way we never were,” tells the story of the “decline of the traditional family” as it has evolved from the 1950’s. The story deals with the many political disbeliefs that happen in our generation such as traditional family values and gender relations; and tells how the 1950s was a time of US global political and economic dominance, independence in the commercialization and industrialization, and how it relates to how the US works today. Coontz shows that the ideals of the common family have been changing due to many factors like demographics, political changes, and the economy. Coontz analyzed that the 1950s as a time of social and economic upswing as "The apparently stable families of the 1950s were the result of an economic boom--the gross national product grew by nearly 250% and
I found interesting at the end of the book the countless pages of sources she used to gather the information for the book. Additionally, I found the book quite intriguing as it relates the past to the present both socially and politically, and shows the varying opinions to the many growing debates of our century. I found the ideology that the past workforce is not something to model the current workforce as over the past 50+ years more women have began to gain new roles and opportunities that gets them out of the “housewife”