This unique textbook and reader combination will appeal to professors and students alike. Sociology of the Family includes in every chapter an article relevant to the topic at hand. These articles include excerpts from well-known books and journal articles. A brief summary and focus questions open the article, stimulating student thought; then, a set of discussion questions follows, making the book interactive and promoting active learning.

The book will draw students in with its easy to understand writing style and its catchy opening situations at the beginning of every chapter. It then covers the important topics of race, social class, and gender, in separate chapters, and addresses these issues in all subsequent chapters. This book is unlike other textbooks in which theory and research methods are briefly mentioned in an opening chapter (never to be discussed again). In Sociology of the Family, the authors not only cover theory and methods in separate chapters, but theoretical perspectives are continually applied and methodological issues are consistently discussed in consequent chapters throughout the book.

Professors and students will also appreciate the cross-cultural focus that runs throughout the book. With a strong emphasis on cross-cultural family dynamics, this text is excellent for courses that focus primarily on the U.S. or attempt to contextualize family patterns and trends and controversies in the U.S. by comparing them with other national or global trends.