The Family in America offers a fresh interpretation of American social history, emphasizing the vital role of the family and household autonomy and threats to both imposed by industrial organization and the state. Allan Carlson shows that the United States, rather than being "born modern" as a progressive consumerist society, was in fact founded as an agrarian society composed of independent households rooted in land, lineage, and hierarchy. Carlson argues that family survival continues to be of paramount importance today. He critically examines five distinct strategies to restore a foundation for family life in industrial society, drawing on the insights of Frederic LePlay, Carle Zimmerman, and G. K. Chesterton. Carlson shows that family survival depends on the creation of meaningful, "pre-modern" household economies. This new edition includes an introduction by Allan Carlson, detailing the continued press of the industrial process onto the American family structure since initial publication of the book in 1993.

The Evolution of Urban Societyis concerned with the presentation and analysis of regularities in the two best-documented examples of early, independent urban society: Mesopotamia and central Mexico. It provides a systematic comparison of institutional forms and trends of growth that are to be found in both of them. Emphasizing basic similarities in structure rather than the many acknowledged formal features by which each culture is rendered distinguishable from all others, it demonstrates that both societies can usefully be regarded as variants of a single process.Generalizing, comparative analyses of the origins of ancient civilizations in early anthropological studies emphasized the diversity of their cultures rather than their similarities. As this volume illustrates, early societies, in actuality, provide a significant example of broad regularities in human behavior. The emergence of states - of stratified, politically organized societies based upon a complex division of labor - is one of those great transformations that have punctuated human civilization. Adams shows why the study of societal evolution is so significant, and why it has remained a durable and attractive anthropological focus of interest.Originally published in 1966, The Evolution of Urban Society is based on a series of lectures at the University of Rochester in honor of the esteemed anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan. It remains required reading for students of anthropology, ethnography, ancient civilizations, and world history. As Elizabeth Carter noted in Science at the time: "Adams's The Evolution of Urban Society set the agenda for contemporary research into early urbanism in the [Mesopotamian] region."

The Evolution of Urban Societyis concerned with the presentation and analysis of regularities in the two best-documented examples of early, independent urban society: Mesopotamia and central Mexico. It provides a systematic comparison of institutional forms and trends of growth that are to be found in both of them. Emphasizing basic similarities in structure rather than the many acknowledged formal features by which each culture is rendered distinguishable from all others, it demonstrates that both societies can usefully be regarded as variants of a single process.

Generalizing, comparative analyses of the origins of ancient civilizations in early anthropological studies emphasized the diversity of their cultures rather than their similarities. As this volume illustrates, early societies, in actuality, provide a significant example of broad regularities in human behavior. The emergence of states--of stratified, politically organized societies based upon a complex division of labor--is one of those great transformations that have punctuated human civilization. Adams shows why the study of societal evolution is so significant, and why it has remained a durable and attractive anthropological focus of interest.

Originally published in 1966, "The Evolution of Urban Society "is based on a series of lectures at the University of Rochester in honor of the esteemed anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan. It remains required reading for students of anthropology, ethnography, ancient civilizations, and world history. As Elizabeth Carter noted in "Science "at the time: "Adams's "The Evolution of Urban Society set "the agenda for contemporary research into early urbanism in the Mesopotamian] region."

The Family in America offers a fresh interpretation of American social history, emphasizing the vital role of the family and household autonomy and threats to both imposed by industrial organization and the state. Allan Carlson shows that the United States, rather than being "born modern" as a progressive consumerist society, was in fact founded as an agrarian society composed of independent households rooted in land, lineage, and hierarchy.

Carlson argues that family survival continues to be of paramount importance today. He critically examines five distinct strategies to restore a foundation for family life in industrial society, drawing on the insights of Frederic LePlay, Carle Zimmerman, and G. K. Chesterton. Carlson shows that family survival depends on the creation of meaningful, "pre-modern" household economies. This new edition includes an introduction by Allan Carlson, detailing the continued press of the industrial process onto the American family structure since initial publication of the book in 1993.