M. Rosenfeld. THE AGE OF INDEPENDENCE: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions and the Changing American Family. Harvard University Press. Available now from Amazon.com. You can also find the book, along with a selection from the text and the index, at the Harvard University Press website.

     The Age of Independence is a book which offers a new theory of family trends and social change in the US. The argument revolves around the independent life stage, a life stage which has emerged since 1960. Young adults experience the independent life stage after they have left their parents' homes, but before they have settled down to start their own family. During the independent life stage young men and women go away to college, travel, begin careers, and enjoy a period of relative social independence.
     The rise of the independent life stage has reduced parental control over the dating and mate selection choices of their children. The decline of parental supervision and control results in a sharp rise in interracial and same-sex unions, the kind of unions that previous generations of parents were able to prevent. Although most Americans and many scholars believe that young adults are returning home to the parental nest in ever greater numbers (a phenomenon the press has dubbed 'the boomerang effect'), this widely held perception has it exactly backwards. In fact what really distinguishes modern family life from previous eras is the new independence (geographic, residential, and social) of young adults from their families of origin.

     Until very recently, individual level census data from the past had never been available for scholarly analysis. What we knew about family life in the past came from diaries, from the official records of a few towns and churches, or from travel writers such as Tocqueville. Now that we have individual level census records from 1850 through 2000, we are able to look into long term trends in family life in a way that inevitably must cast some of our previous assumptions aside. I use the newly available census data to describe the rise of the independent life stage, and the sharp increase in the number of interracial and same-sex unions in recent years. My analysis of census data offers a new explanation for why the tumult of the industrial revolution failed to produce an increase in nontraditional unions: most families in the industrial revolution moved to cities and factory towns together, so the basic structure of parental supervision over young adults was maintained.
     By placing the post-1960 family changes in a long term historical and demographic context, I am able to offer a new perspective on the dramatic recent diversification in American family forms. I use in-depth interviews to explore the life histories of families and couples, and to illustrate the role that the independent life stage plays in social change.
     Same-sex marriage is one of the most divisive issues of our times. My book attempts to answer several questions related to same-sex marriage. First, why now? Why has the climate for gay rights in the U.S. changed so much in the past few years? Second, what next? What do the historical precedents and current demographic trends portend for the future of same-sex marriage in the US?
     The independent life stage has implications beyond the rise of nontraditional unions, which after all are still a small minority of all couples in the US. Because parents raise their children with their future independence in mind, parents raise their children differently, and these differences affect how we all think about individual freedoms.

     Related Figures and Data:
      * A figure and worksheet describing the increasing percentage of American couples that are interracial, by several definitions of interracial.
      * A figure and worksheet descriing the increasing number of interracial and same-sex couples in the US.
      * A figure and worksheet describing the decreasing support in the US for laws against interracial marriage.

     PRESS Attention for the book:
      *KGO Radio San Francisco, David Lazarus show, 1/20/2007
      *Chicago Tribune, cover story, "A Cultural Taboo Fades" on the rise of intermarriage, March 11, 2007
      *USA Today, "Boomerang Generation Mostly Hype," on the growing independence of young adults, March 14, 2007.
      *Featured on NBC national nightly news with Brian Williams, in their series on the "State of Our Unions," March 29, 2007, see the story and the video here. The video seems to work better with IE than Firefox...
      *USA Today, "Free as a Bird and Loving It: Being Single Has Its Benefits," April 12, 2007
      *AP National News, picked up by many papers including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Interracial Marriages Surge Across the US" April 13, 2007, another link is here.
      *WAOK talk radio Atlanta, Shelley Wynter show, April 13, 2007
      *Kieran Healy, blogging at Crooked Timber has some lovely things to say about my book and about the age of independence, and about David Brooks' typical misunderstanding of the independence of young adulthood.
      *KZSU radio Lunch Special show, hosted by Byrd, July 2,2007, interview (a 13 minute section of the hour long show, in mp3 format, 4.5MB).
      *I was a guest on Jefferson Public Radio's Jefferson Express show on October 5 (link provides audio files for the last 10 episodes only...)
      *I was quoted in a cover story in the Sunday Oregonian, Sept 23, 2007, titled "Marriage Today: Fewer I do's and more just I's," but no web link is currently available.
      *I was quoted in a December 14, 2007 story in The Indian Express, about intermarriage and Indian-Americans.

      *On the subject of Barack Obama and multiracial America, I was cited in an interesting story by Charles Lewis in Canada's National Post, June 7, 2008. Obama's electoral success so far means this particular conversation about race and multiraciality will continue.

      *In recognition of the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court decision which ruled all state bans against interracial marriage unconstitutional, there were several stories, including:
      *Washington Post, Love is Colorblind, June 9, 2007
      *Stanford Report, "Nontraditional Unions got boost from Changing Family Structure, Sociologist Says," June 13, 2007
      *The Virginian-Pilot, "Mixed-Race Marriage Gained Legal Status in Virginia 40 Years Ago," June 10, 2007
      *If you have a print edition of the July, 2007 Cosmo, you'll find me on page 27.

      *In memory of the May, 2008 passing of Mildred Loving, one of the litigants in Loving v. Virginia, Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page wrote a nice column which cited me and which makes the relevant connection between the debate over same-sex marriage today and the legacy of Loving v. Virginia.

      *The evidence shows that same-sex couples do a perfectly fine job raising children. These couples need all the rights and recognition and obligations of marriage. See my June 19, 2008 Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee.

Syllabus

Presentation schedule

Articles on the reading list (external links accessible to Stanford users only)
Shammas, "Anglo American Household Government in Comparative Perspective" (I recommend that you download and print)
Arnett and Taber, "Adolescence Terminable and Interminable" (read in HTML or click on the PDF version, then print)
Rosenfeld and Kim, "The Independence of Young Adults and the Rise of Interracial and Same-Sex Unions"
Rosenfeld, "Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change in the US"

Questions for each reading

Student presentation schedule

Guide on how to present

Syllabus

Final Exam: Tuesday, June 10, 12:15-3:15, in our regular classroom, Hewlett 102

Legal Decisions relating to contraception and abortion:
*Griswold v Connecticut, US Supreme Ct 1965
*Eisenstadt v Baird, US Supreme Ct 1972
*Roe v Wade, US Supreme Ct 1973

Sodomy Cases:
*Bowers v Hardwick, US Supreme Ct, 1986
*Lawrence v Texas, US Supreme Ct, 2003

Marriage Cases:
*Loving v Virginia, US Supreme Ct 1967
*Baehr v Miike, Hawaii trial, 1996
*Baehr v Miike, Hawaii reversal after state constitutional ammendment, 1999
*Baker v State, Vermont, 2000
*In Re Gardiner, Kansas, 2002
*Goodridge v Dept Public Health, MA 2003
*In Re Marriage Cases, California, 2008

Questions for each reading assignment.

Preliminary section assignments and rooms are now posted.
Section presentation schedule for Rosenfeld's section.

Preliminary schedule for in-class presentations for Soc 255

First draft of potential final exam questions (now in final form)

First draft of potential midterm questions (recently updated)

Some Additional Relevant Links:

Judith Stacey's "Good Riddance to the Family"
David Popoenoe's "Two-Parent Families Are better"
Moynihan's 1965 Report on "The Negro Family"
A 1995 US Dept. Health and Human Services Report on Unmarried Childbearing
A 2003 US Census report on Marriage and Cohabitation

Syllabus

First homework assignment, due Oct 9

Second homework assignment due Oct 18, see the links page for the dataset.. Homework 3 (due October 30) is here, see class notes on how to download the data. I have also posted instructions for the abstract and final paper (NOTE updated due dates and instructions).

Soc 149/249
Urban Studies 112

*Note Final Exam Time and Date: Wednesday, December 12, 7:00P-10:00P
*Note Final Exam location: Bldg 300, room 300
TAs: Ivo Petev (ipetev@stanford.edu) and Jung-Eun Lee (junglee@stanford.edu)

Preliminary Section Assignments are here.

Schedule of in-class presentations for students taking Soc 249

Presentation schedule for Rosenfeld's section.

Questions for the Assigned Readings

What is expected of in-class and in-section presenters.

Study guides for the exams, based on last year's exams:
Sample midterm questions
Sample final exam questions

Moynihan's 1965 report, The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, published by the US Dept. of Labor (PDF file, 4MB).

Links to reports on HOPE VI, the 1990s housing policy which included tearing down the worst high rise public housing projects:
A Brookings Report by Turbov and Piper
An Urban Institute/Brookings report by Popkin et al
A Critique by Venkatesh and Celimli
An Urban Institute brief report by Buron
An Urban Institute brief report by Popkin, Eiseman, and Cove

Links to reports on Moving To Opportunity

Links relating to welfare reform:
See various working papers from the Three City Study including Andrew Cherlin's paper, "The Consequences of Welfare Reform for Child Well-Being"
See also Cherlin et al 2002, paper from Social Service Review (accessible to Stanford students only)
And see also Rebecca Blank's thorough summary and evaluation of welfare reform.

Some overheads from class are replicated here, so you don't have to copy them down. Introduction to some of the basic ideas in the class. A figure on transitional neighborhoods and neighborhood turnover. Timelines: Chicago time line, and Civil Rights time line. Notes on Marxist views of history. Outline of the Culture of Poverty ideas. My notes on neighborhood effects, and an illustrative simulation (in pdf format; an excel version that is easier to play with is here) of what the segregation indices mean. My notes on different causes of segregation are here. Further notes on the effects of segregation. My notes on free market economics and mortgage lending are here. A pdf figure which describes gerrymandering and reverse gerrymandering (and a powerpoint version of the same gerrymandering slides). Two excellent maps of Chicago, prepared by Victor Thompson, are now available. There is the neighborhood map (especially useful as a companion to Hirsch's book), and the map of Black residential concentration. Two graphs of black-white income differences are here.

How progressive is the US Income tax (in theory)? See the history of marginal tax rates.

Weblinks with more up-to-date information about residential segregation in the US (links open in separate windows) with thanks to students Ashley Daly and Katherine Lee.
* A Census Bureau report, "Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000"
* The Lewis Mumford Center, with various reports on segregation.
* The Civil Rights Center at Harvard University.
* Stanford's CCSRE has various reports on local diversity and segregation.

Student notes:

Preliminary section assignments

Project 1, Historical/ Archival: Information: Notes on how to read sources, and guide for project 2 proposals. Some additional helpful hints about how to write the historical paper.

Project 2, Ethnography: Some guidance about what the proposal for the first project should look like. Guidelines for the first project paper. Some key terms from Goffman.

Class NOTE: During the weeks of May 10-14 and May 17-21, section will be held in Meyer 143 (the Mac lab).

Project 3, Quantitative Data Analysis: Download a pdf version of the documentation (~1.94 MB) for the dataset, and the dataset itself (~9.5MB- Note: if your browser tries to display rather than download this file, try control-click for Mac or right-click for windows). New: a pdf version of the official explanation of the methodology of the CPS (~2.2MB).

My own brief Introduction to STATA, contains lots of key information. A brief tour (new) of the CPS variables. The first assignment for Project 3 is here. Instructions for the proposal and final paper for project 3 are now available. If you want to order a 1-year Stata license for your own computer (Stanford students *only*), go to
http://www.stata.com/info/order/new/edu/gradplans/gp3-order.html and order 'intercooled Stata' for the OS you run.

My notes on how to match husband to wife or householder to partner, to create couples data, using STATA and census data from ipums.

Two graphs to get you thinking about life course versus historical and cohort effects, from the 2000 CPS. Mean income by age and gender, and mean education by age and gender. A log for the creation of the graphs is here. Figures for health status by age are here, embedded with commands and notes.

Additional logs from 2004 (see also the 2003 logs): First section May 13. My answers to the project 3 homework. Last class log, with additional notes about the usefulness of the 'table' function.

Class logs from 2003: First class, May 12. Second class, May 14. Third class, May 19. Fourth class, May 21 (more on graphing). Second section log and final section log are now posted.

Class logs from 2002: First class, and Second class,