Title: Fatherhood and Marriage Are Indispensable for Children and Society - The Hausvater Project
Headings: 
Book Reviews
Fatherhood and Marriage Are Indispensable for Children and Society
1. Fatherlessness
2. Fathers in History
3. Why Fathers Matter
4. Popenoe's Recommendations
Evaluation

Content: As men left home to work in new industrial jobs, the majority of childrearing was left to their wives. The rise of democratic individualism made the concept of a patriarchal father seem outdated. The Quakers put an end to the traditional belief in children's innate depravity, saying that their inherently good natures thrived not on stern fathering but on gentle, nurturant mothering. As the culture absorbed the many changes brought by an industrial, democratic world, courts began awarding child custody to mothers in the mid-19th century (97). While the position of men became more tenuous within the home, society still celebrated their roles as providers and protectors. However, the coming of the Great Depression showed the weakness of men in the provider role as well. Popenoe considers World War II to have had an ambiguous impact on the status of fatherhood, for while it stressed the vital importance of the protector role, it also showed that millions of women and children were able to get along just fine while fathers were away for months or years at a time. The 1950s saw a flowering of familism in America, perhaps inspired by the wish to get back to a simple domestic life after the trauma of war. The modern nuclear family reached its zenith, with men going to work each day and women staying home to keep the house and care for the children. However, as quickly as it appeared, the 1950s family vanished in the 1960s.