No Exit: What Parents Owe Their Children and What Society Owes Parents

by Anne L. Alstott

Book Overview

Having a child, it has been said, is the greatest risk one can take. Marriages may come and go but parenthood endures. There is simply no escape--no exit--from the emotional and practical responsibilities of parenting. Nor should there be. While certain questions swirling around children--What constitutes a "good" parent? What is the role of the state in ensuring the welfare of the child?--are endlessly debated, consistency and continuity of care...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195162366
• ISBN13: 9780195162363
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Worth reading

Anne Alstott is an clear, thoughtful writer and this book is fascinating.She is unusually skillful at making incisive arguments of two different kinds: - moral arguments, in this case arguments about what society owes parents (given what parents do for society), and - practical policy arguments about how her new policy initiatives should be shaped to help parents the most without being overly paternalistic.This book links those two kinds of arguments, and the result is a convincing moral case for some major policy changes. They may not be quite the ones you expect. Alstott is hard to pigeonhole as either a traditional feminist or a traditional economic liberal. Her proposals have their own logic. I think they're worth reading whatever your political/philosophical views.