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This book grapples with a disturbing paradox: the very institutions that are supposed to be helping parents in the difficult enterprise of child rearing--schools, courts, social service agencies, religious institutions--are often infected with pronounced anti-family views. While childhood is under assault by popular culture, parental autonomy has been compromised by the tyranny of 'experts'--in psychology, education , law, and social science. Despite the attempt by politicians and social theorists alike to posture as being on the side of 'family values,' Dana Mack argues, we live in a culture that is increasingly family-unfriendly and indeed undermines the efforts of parents when they are working harder than ever to raise their children properly. At once a devastating critique of our muddled status quo and also a clear blueprint for change, this book is bound to have a powerful effect on anyone who is concerned about the fate of the family in contemporary American life.
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