ABSTRACT
The most powerful visions of traditional families derive from images that are still delivered to our homes in countless reruns of 1950s television sit-coms. When liberals and conservatives debate family policy, for example, the issue is often framed in terms of how many 'Ozzie and Harriet' families are left in America. Liberals seem to think that unless they can prove the 'Leave It to Beaver' family is on an irreversible slide toward extinction, they cannot justify introducing new family definitions and social policies. In retrospect, the 1950s also seem a time of innocence and consensus: Gang warfare among youths did not lead to drive-by shootings; the crack epidemic had not yet hit; discipline problems in the schools were minor; no 'secular humanist' movement opposed the 1954 addition of the words under God to the Pledge of Allegiance; and 90 percent of all school levies were approved by voters.
