Broken Bonds: What Family Fragmentation Means for America’s Future

Divorce, single-parenthood, and the diminished stature of the institution of marriage are primary drivers of widening income inequality according to conservative scholar Pearlstein’s follow-up to his 2011 book, From Family Collapse to America’s Decline. It’s a hypothesis for which he provides little support. Thankfully, Pearlstein is a genial and generous enough researcher to provide space for opposing and non-committal writers, who challenge his conclusions here. The result is a largely unfocused, but stimulating discussion on race, poverty, drugs, prison, and opportunity. Not that Pearlstein doesn’t try: his attempts to refute his opponents ranges from the claim that his opinions are self-evident to putting words in the mouth of the Manhattan Institute’s Abigail Thernstrom. The writers, academics, and policy wonks have no problem pushing back. The more liberal Stephanie Coontz provides point-by-point rebuttals to his argument, while the right-wing Hoover Institute’s Terry Moe, who should be Pearlstein’s natural ally, bluntly asks, “Why focus on family fragmentation?” Conservative scholar Lawrence Mead agrees that unstable families have an impact on opportunity, but points to lack of jobs as a bigger factor. Pearlstein is to be commended for allowing this level of dissent, since it engages the reader more profitably than many pro-family polemics. (Aug.)