Fatherhood in America : a history / Robert L. Griswold. [print]

"From conservative hopes for the return of Old Testament patriarchs to "wildmen" searching for lost fathers, from deadbeat dads to "daddy trackers," the cultural meaning of fatherhood has become highly contested." "Fatherhood in America is the first full-scale historical analysis of men's lives as parents. Illuminating the critical connection between fatherhood and male identity, this book explores the vital relationship between fathers, the men's movement, and feminism." "Using intimate revelations from diaries and letters, prescriptive exhortations in popular magazines, impersonal social scientific surveys, and the superheated transcripts of congressional hearings, the book shows how the nineteenth-century patriarch, a man whose position as "breadwinner" was more or less unquestioned, has given way to the late twentieth-century "Dad," a man who, more often than not, shares the breadwinning burden with his wife. Fatherhood in America probes the economic, political, cultural, and demographic forces that account for this disorienting upheaval. "How we came to expect more than ever before from fathers without knowing quite what to expect is the story of fatherhood in the twentieth century," Robert L. Griswold writes.".

1. Introduction: From Breadwinner to "Daddy Tracker" -- 2. Breadwinning and American Manhood, 1800-1920 -- 3. Breadwinning on the Margin: Working-Class Fatherhood, 1880-1930 -- 4. Fatherhood, Immigration, and American Culture, 1880-1930 -- 5. The Invention of the New Fatherhood, 1920-1940 -- 6. The Cultural Contradictions of the New Fatherhood, 1920-1940 -- 7. Fathers in Crisis: The 1930s -- 8. Fatherhood, Foxholes, and Fascism, 1940-1950 -- 9. Fatherhood and the Great American Barbecue, 1945-1965 -- 10. Fatherhood and the Reorganization of Men's Lives, 1965-1993 -- 11. Patriarchy and the Politics of Fatherhood, 1970-1993.

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