The ASSAULT ON PARENTHOOD: How Our Culture Undermines the Family

By Dana Mack

Book Overview

In plain language, this searing critique of how government and cultural institutions are assaulting parental authority and family life explains how the very institutions that are supposed to help families may actually be harming them.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684807742
• ISBN13: 9780684807744
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Things Have Only Gotten Worse in the Decade Since

Dana Mack has written an excellent critique of how American culture and political institutions have undermined parental authority and attachment to their children. She spares neither the left nor the right in her hard-hitting arguments about how anti-family our modern society has become. Liberals will hate her take on employed moms, daycare, government-run schools, Hollywood, religion, marriage, divorce, tax reform, and so on. Conservatives will hate her treatment of welfare reform, paid maternity leave, and increasing social services to poor families. Reading this a decade after it was written, I was depressed by how much worse the problem has become in the interim. Out-of-wedlock births are now nearly 40% of the total in our country. Music, TV, movies, etc. are more explicit than ever. The hostility to traditional religion has markedly increased in recent years (witness the publicity granted by the elite media to militant atheist demagogues such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens). The optimistic tone of Ms. Mack's book touting a "new familism" has turned out not to be justified :-(

Rages against the tyranny of "experts"

Now in paperback with a new preface by the author, The Assault On Parenthood is a stinging, thought-provoking wake-up call with regard to the erosion of parental authority and family intimacy in today's modern culture. Based on interviews with parents from all tiers of society, The Assault On Parenthood rages against the tyranny of "experts" in psychology, education, law, and social science that undermine parental authority. The Assault On Parenthood is a "must" for anyone who is concerned about where American families are headed in contemporary times and in the future.

Scary

I was actually frightened (for my child) and disgusted by the time I finished this book. This book made it very clear to me how our children are being mis-educated and how parents are being undermined in our country today. The idea that educators and lawmakers are testing their theories on our children was infuriating. Ms. Mack has done a commendable job on pulling it all together, even if I don't agree with her that the government can provide solutions to these problems.

Our government interfers with our raising of our children

Years from now this book will be remembered as the turning point in the fight to establish the right of American parents to raise their children without the unnecessary interference of the state. Ms. Mack is not the first to have written on the various subjects in her book, but she has synthesized the information more effectively, and meticulously documented her facts with many pages of footnotes. The subject is complex, and as a result the book is not a fast read, but it may change your outlook on the way our government wants you to raise your children