The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family

by Michael J. Rosenfeld

Overview

Michael Rosenfeld offers a new theory of family dynamics to account for the interesting and startling changes in marriage and family composition in the United States in recent years. His argument revolves around the independent life stage that emerged around 1960. This stage is experienced by young adults after they leave their parents' homes but before they settle down to start their own families. During this time, young men and women go away to college, travel abroad, begin careers, and enjoy social independence. This independent life stage has reduced parental control over the dating practices and mate selection of their children and has resulted in a sharp rise in interracial and same-sex unions—unions that were more easily averted by previous generations of parents.

Complementing analysis of newly available census data from the entire twentieth century with in-depth interviews that explore the histories of families and couples, Rosenfeld proposes a conceptual model to explain many social changes that may seem unrelated but that flow from the same underlying logic. He shows, for example, that the more a relationship is transgressive of conventional morality, the more likely it is for the individuals to live away from their family and area of origin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674034907
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/30/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael J. Rosenfeld is Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments

1. Introduction
2. Family Government
3. The Independent Life Stage
4. The Rise of Alternative Unions
5. Alternative Unions and the Independent life Stage
6. Childhood
7. The Rise of Tolerance
8. Privacy and the Law
9. Same-Sex Marriage and the Future of the American Family

• Appendix Tables
• Notes
• Index

What People are Saying About This

A significant contribution to the literature on interracial relationships, same-sex relationships, and family dynamics. Perhaps most importantly, this work provides compelling statistical evidence to support what for too long have been anecdotal arguments.

Steven Mintz

A serious and thought-provoking take on the dramatic transformations taking place in early adulthood—and their far-reaching implications for the future of sexuality, race, and family life in America.
— Steven Mintz, Stanford University

Andrew Cherlin

An original and provocative thesis with impressive evidence in support of it.
— Andrew Cherlin, The Johns Hopkins University

Renee Romano

A significant contribution to the literature on interracial relationships, same-sex relationships, and family dynamics. Perhaps most importantly, this work provides compelling statistical evidence to support what for too long have been anecdotal arguments.
— Renee Romano, Wesleyan University

Editorial Reviews

A serious and thought-provoking take on the dramatic transformations taking place in early adulthood—and their far-reaching implications for the future of sexuality, race, and family life in America.

Steven Mintz

A significant contribution to the literature on interracial relationships, same-sex relationships, and family dynamics. Perhaps most importantly, this work provides compelling statistical evidence to support what for too long have been anecdotal arguments.

Renee Romano

Michael Rosenfeld's The Age of Independence is perhaps the most intellectually provocative study of family change in the United States to be published in the past decade. Weaving together strands of literature from social history, demography, and cultural movements, it proposes an explanation of how and why Americans shifted their marriage practices to embrace greater tolerance for "alternative unions," including cohabitation and interracial and same-sex partnerships...The Age of Independence, slim in pages but not in content, is engaging reading and should be especially attractive to those of us who are always on the lookout for worthy books for graduate seminars on the family...Rosenfeld's book provides a rich lode of ideas for empirical examination. Whether he is right or wrong in all of the particulars, he has written a valuable book.

Population and Development Review - Frank F. Furstenberg

An original and provocative thesis with impressive evidence in support of it.

Andrew Cherlin

Rosenfeld's book is meticulously researched, carefully argued, and beautifully written, and it deserves a place on the "must-read" list of social demographers as well as other social scientists working in the areas of family, race and sexuality...This book has so much going for it that I believe it is destined to rank as a classic in the fields of family demography and sociology of the family.

International Journal of Sociology of the Family - Kathleen E. Hull

The book offers an original argument about the sources of family change, and about the past and future of the American family.

Family Forum

Rosenfeld's book is meticulously researched, carefully argued, and beautifully written, and it deserves a place on the "must-read" list of social demographers as well as other social scientists working in the areas of family, race and sexuality...This book has so much going for it that I believe it is destined to rank as a classic in the fields of family demography and sociology of the family.
— Kathleen E. Hull

International Journal of Sociology of the Family

Michael Rosenfeld's The Age of Independence is perhaps the most intellectually provocative study of family change in the United States to be published in the past decade. Weaving together strands of literature from social history, demography, and cultural movements, it proposes an explanation of how and why Americans shifted their marriage practices to embrace greater tolerance for "alternative unions," including cohabitation and interracial and same-sex partnerships...The Age of Independence, slim in pages but not in content, is engaging reading and should be especially attractive to those of us who are always on the lookout for worthy books for graduate seminars on the family...Rosenfeld's book provides a rich lode of ideas for empirical examination. Whether he is right or wrong in all of the particulars, he has written a valuable book.
— Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.

Population and Development Review