Meet the men and women whose groundbreaking work elevated the field of family studies!

In Pioneering Paths in the Study of Families: The Lives and Careers of Family Scholars, you'll find 40 autobiographies written by leading scholars in sociology, family studies, psychology, and child development. Their fascinating stories demonstrate how their family experiences, educational opportunities, and occupational endeavors not only shaped the disciplines they chose but also shaped the theoretical perspectives they utilized and the topics they researched.

From the editors: These autobiographies document the experiences of scholars from the early twentieth century to the present. The descriptions of early influences on their education, of their graduate school experiences, and of their academic career paths, provides a wealth of valuable material. Since four of these scholars have died and a number are in their eighties or older, these histories provide rich case studies on factors that influence the decision to go to college, get married, pursue an advanced degree, make specific occupational choices, and investigate certain topics. These autobiographies also detail the barriers that early women scholars in the social sciences faced.

The scholars whose lives you will learn about in Pioneering Paths in the Study of Families include:



Joan Aldous
Katherine R. Allen
Pauline Boss
Carlfred B. Broderick
Wesley R. Burr
Catherine Street Chilman
Harold T. Christensen
Marilyn Coleman
Rand D. Conger
Randal D. Day
William J. Doherty
Evelyn Millis Duvall
Glen H. Elder, Jr.
Bernard Farber
Margaret Feldman
Mark A. Fine
Greer Litton Fox
Frank F. Furstenberg
Viktor Gecas
Harold D. Grotevant
Gerald Handel
Michael E. Lamb
Ralph LaRossa
Gary R. Lee
Helena Znaniecka Lopata
Harriette P. McAdoo
Hamilton McCubbin
Brent C. Miller
Phyllis Moen
Gerhard Neubeck
Gary W. Peterson
Ira L. Reiss
John Scanzoni
Walter R. Schumm
Barbara H. Settles
Laurence Steinberg
Suzanne K. Steinmetz
Sheldon Stryker
Marvin B. Sussman
Irv Tallman