
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 17, 1995                   TAG: 9503170033
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

LECTURE AT VA. TECH

Stephanie Coontz, professor of history at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., will give a talk Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the rear auditorium at Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center. Her talk, "The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, aims to debunk what Coontz calls "the largely mythical past that dominates current American political discourse."

Coontz's talk combines historical research with contemporary case studies about parenting, privacy, gender relations, racial stereotypes and sexual practice.

Coontz also applies her historical perspective to address the current debate about family values.

"Using family as a model for public life produces an unrealistic, even destructive definition of community," she says, pointing out that families from all classes have always been dependent on government aid and the larger community for support. Coontz maintains that the 1950s suburban family, hailed as the model for traditional family values, was far more dependent on government "handouts" than those tagged as underclass families in today's society.

Coontz's talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Women's Studies and Women's Research Institute at Virginia Tech.

by CNB