Black Families (Revised)

This updated edition of the classic book Black Families at the Crossroads, offers a comprehensive examination of the diverse and complex issues surrounding Black families. Leanor Boulin Johnson and Robert Staples combine more than sixty years of writing and research on Black families to offer insights into the pre-slavery development of the Black middle class, internal processes that affect all class strata among Black American families, the impact of race on modern Black immigrant families, the interaction of external forces and internal norms at each stage of the Black family life cycle, and public policies that provide challenges and promising prospects for the continuing resilience of the Black family as an American institution. This thoroughly revised edition features new research, including empirical studies and theoretical applications, and a review of significant social polices and economic changes in the past decade and their impact on Black families.

With more than 60 years of writing and research on Black families between them, Johnson (African American and family studies, Arizona State U.) and Staples (sociology, U. of California, San Francisco) challenge stereotypes about black families while shedding light on gender roles, marital patterns, and other aspects of Black family dynamics. This substantially revised edition of the book first published 12 years ago includes new historical interpretations of the nature of North American slavery and its impact on Black family life, changes in cultural patterns (including hip-hop), new research on sexuality, and discussion of the AIDS crisis. The final chapter on problems and prospects for the 21st incorporates changes since the 1990s, including the impact of that decade's welfare reform policy and the continuing lack of universal health care. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Leanor Boulin Johnson is professor of African American studies and family studies at Arizona State University.

Robert Staples is an emeritus faculty member of the University of California, San Francisco, and visiting fellow in the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.