There’s a conservative tendency in the United States to construct idealized conceptions of the “traditional” family. In our current era, this nostalgic impulse frequently lands on an image from the 1950s, the archetypal nuclear family. Rather than being a natural state that can be returned to (through the practice of proper/“traditional” values), Coontz’s book shows how the exceptional political economy of midcentury America resulted in an equally exceptional form of family life. It was a unique combination of legal and social pressures that pushed US women out of the workforce (and into the household) post-WWII, rather than a spontaneous seachange about the roles of women and motherhood. Coontz shows how societal changes preceded rationalizations of the nuclear family, and how conditions during the 1950s primed multiple generations for feminist ideas that would be popularized in the 1960s.
A fair amount of this book might feel unsurprising for some readers, but I think it’s worth reading despite its age (first published in 1992, updated in 2016). In particular, Coontz connects the establishment of the idealized nuclear family form with the contemporaneous process of suburbanization. The reshaping of cities during this period has had extremely far-reaching consequences. But these changes would not have occurred without subsidized construction of highways and roads, and easy access to favorable housing loans (whose distribution favored white americans). Further, the GI Bill amounted to a massive and widespread investment in the educational success of men, ushering in an era of social mobility that hasn’t been repeated. Each of these things puts a lie to the idea that nuclear families from this period succeeded without “handouts” from the government. Above all, Coontz urges us to abandon the demand that families conform to a particular shape or moral framework, and asks us to focus on ensuring our society provides parents and children with what they need to thrive.