Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the 'male breadwinner marriage' is the least traditional family in history, and sexual assault was more common in the 1970s than today. Acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. Now more relevant than ever, this book is a potent corrective to dangerous nostalgia for an America that never really existed.