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 Contents
List of Boxes, xix
Preface, xxi

Part One Introduction, 1

Chapter 1 Public and Private Families, 3

Looking Forward, 4

WHAT IS A FAMILY?, 5
The Public Family, 6
The Private Family, 9
Two Views, Same Family, 11
HOW DO FAMILY SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?, 13
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY AND FAMILIES, 17
Four Widely Used Perspectives, 17
The Exchange Perspective, 17
The Symbolic Interaction Perspective, 18
The Feminist Perspective, 20
The Postmodern Perspective, 21
GLOBALIZATION AND FAMILIES, 24
FAMILY LIFE AND INDIVIDUALISM, 26
A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT ON FAMILIES, 28
Looking Back, 30
Study Questions, 31
Key Terms, 31
Thinking about Families, 31

Boxed Features
   HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: The National Surveys, 18

Chapter 2 The History of the Family, 33

Looking Forward, 34

WHAT DO FAMILIES DO?, 36

The Origins of Family and Kinship, 36

vii
viii Contents

THE AMERICAN FAMILY BEFORE 1776, 38

American Indian Families: The Primacy of the Tribe, 39
European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family, 40
Family Diversity, 41
THE EMERGENCE OF THE “MODERN” AMERICAN FAMILY: 1776–1900, 42
From Cooperation to Separation: Women’s and Men’s Spheres, 44
AFRICAN AMERICAN, MEXICAN AMERICAN,
AND ASIAN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES, 46
African American Families, 46
An African Heritage?, 46
The Impact of Slavery, 47
Mexican American Families, 49
Asian Immigrant Families, 50
The Asian Heritage, 50
Asian Immigrants, 51
THE RISE OF THE PRIVATE FAMILY: 1900 –PRESENT, 52
The Early Decades, 52
The Depression Generation, 55
The 1950s, 56
The 1960s through the 1990s, 58
THE CHANGING LIFE COURSE, 61
Social Change in the Twentieth Century, 61
The New Life Stage of Emerging Adulthood, 62
The Role of Education, 62
Constrained Opportunities, 63
Declining Parental Control, 63
Emerging Adulthood and the Life-Course Perspective, 64
What History Tells Us, 64
Looking Back, 65
Study Questions, 66
Key Terms, 67
Thinking about Families, 67

Part Two Gender, Class, and Race-Ethnicity, 69

Chapter 3 Gender and Families, 71

Looking Forward, 72

THE TRANSGENDER MOMENT, 72

THE GESTATIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER, 75
THE CHILDHOOD CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER, 77
Parental Socialization, 77
The Media, 78
Peer Groups, 78
 Contents ix

THE CONTINUAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER, 80

Doing and Undoing Gender, 80
GENDER AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE, 83
THINKING ABOUT GENDER DIFFERENCES TODAY, 86
Causes at Multiple Levels, 86
The Slowing of Gender Change, 87
The Asymmetry of Gender Change, 88
Intersectionality, 88
MEN AND MASCULINITIES, 89
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF GENDER STUDIES, 90
Looking Back, 92
Study Questions, 93
Key Terms, 93
Thinking about Families, 93
Boxed Features
  HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: Feminist Research Methods, 80
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Do Employers Discriminate Against Women?, 84

Chapter 4 Social Class and Family Inequality, 95

Looking Forward, 96
FAMILIES AND THE ECONOMY, 97
The Growing Importance of Education, 97
Diverging Demographics, 99
Age at Marriage, 99
Childbearing Outside of Marriage, 99
The Marriage Market, 100
Divorce, 101
Putting the Differences Together, 101
DEFINING SOCIAL CLASS, 102
Bringing in Gender and Family, 103
Social Classes and Status Groups, 104
The Four-Class Model, 104
Three Status Groups, 107
SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN FAMILY LIFE, 107
Assistance from Kin, 108
Kinship among the Poor and Near Poor, 108
Chronic Poverty and Kin Networks, 108
The Limits of Kin Networks, 109
Kinship among the Nonpoor, 110
Social Class and Child Rearing, 110
Social Class and Parental Values, 110
Concerted Cultivation versus Natural Growth, 111
SOCIAL CLASS AND THE FAMILY, 113
x Contents

Looking Back, 115

Study Questions, 116
Key Terms, 116
Thinking about Families, 117
Boxed Features
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Homelessness, by the Numbers, 106

Chapter 5 Race, Ethnicity, and Families, 119

Looking Forward, 120

RACIAL-ETHNIC GROUPS, 121

Constructing Racial-Ethnic Groups, 122
“Whiteness” as Ethnicity, 124
AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES, 127
Marriage and Childbearing, 127
Marriage, 128
Childbearing Outside of Marriage, 128
Single-Parent Families, 128
Explaining the Trends, 128
Availability, 129
Culture, 130
Reconciling the Explanations, 133
Gender and Black Families, 133
The Rise of Middle-Class Families, 133
HISPANIC FAMILIES, 136
Mexican Americans, 136
Puerto Ricans, 138
Cuban Americans, 139
ASIAN AMERICAN FAMILIES, 141
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND IMMIGRANT FAMILIES, 143
AMERICAN INDIAN FAMILIES, 144
RACIAL AND ETHNIC INTERMARRIAGE, 146
Variation in Intermarriage, 146
Intersectionality and Intermarriage, 147
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND KINSHIP, 148
Looking Back, 149
Study Questions, 150
Key Terms, 150
Thinking about Families, 151

Boxed Feature
  FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: How Should Multiracial Families Be
Counted?, 124
 Contents xi

Part Three Sexuality, Partnership, and Marriage, 153

Chapter 6 Sexualities, 155

Looking Forward, 156

SEXUAL IDENTITIES, 158

The Emergence of Sexual Identities, 159
Sexual Acts versus Sexual Identities, 159
The Emergence of “Heterosexuality” and
“Homosexuality”, 159
The Determinants of Sexual Identities, 160
The Social Constructionist Perspective, 160
The Integrative Perspective, 164
Points of Agreement and Disagreement, 165
Questioning Sexual Identities, 166
Queer Theory, 166
Strengths and Limitations, 167
SEXUALITY IN AND OUT OF RELATIONSHIPS, 168
Sexuality in Committed Relationships, 170
Sexual Activity Outside of Relationships, 170
ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY AND PREGNANCY, 172
Changes in Sexual Behavior, 172
The Teenage Pregnancy “Problem”, 173
The Consequences for Teenage Mothers, 173
SEXUALITY AND FAMILY LIFE, 176
Looking Back, 178
Study Questions, 178
Key Terms, 179
Thinking about Families, 179

Boxed Features
  HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: Asking
about Sensitive Behavior, 162
  FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: The Rise and Fall of the Teenage
Pregnancy Problem, 176

Chapter 7 Cohabitation and Marriage, 181

Looking Forward, 182

FORMING A UNION, 183

American Courtship, 184
The Rise and Fall of Dating, 185
Independent Living, 186
Living Apart Relationships, 187
xii Contents

COHABITATION, 188
Cohabitation and Class, 191
College-Educated Cohabitants, 191
Moderately Educated Cohabitants, 192
The Least-Educated Cohabitants, 192
Summing Up, 194
Cohabitation among Lesbians and Gay Men, 194
MARRIAGE, 195
From Institution to Companionship, 196
The Institutional Marriage, 196
The Companionate Marriage, 196
From Companionship to Individualization, 197
Toward the Individualistic Marriage, 198
The Influence of Economic Change, 199
THE CURRENT CONTEXT OF MARRIAGE, 200
Why Do People Still Marry?, 200
Marriage as the Capstone Experience, 201
The Wedding as a Status Symbol, 201
Marriage as Investment, 203
Marriage and Religion, 204
Same-Sex Marriage, 205
Is Marriage Good for You?, 206
The Marriage Market, 207
The Specialization Model, 208
The Income-Pooling Model, 209
SOCIAL CHANGE AND INTIMATE UNIONS, 209
Changes in Union Formation, 210
Marriage as an Ongoing Project, 212
Toward the Egalitarian Marriage?, 212
Looking Back, 214
Study Questions, 215
Key Terms, 215
Thinking about Families, 215
Boxed Features
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: The Legal Rights of Cohabiting Couples, 189

Chapter 8 Work and Families, 217

Looking Forward, 218
FROM SINGLE-EARNER TO DUAL-EARNER MARRIAGES, 219
Behind the Rise, 220
A Profound Change, 221
THE DIVISION OF LABOR IN MARRIAGES, 222
Rethinking Caring Work, 222
Breaking the Work/Family Boundary, 222
Valuing Caring Labor, 222
Toward an Ethic of Care, 224
 Contents xiii

Who’s Doing the Care Work?, 224

Wives’ Earnings and Domestic Work, 226
The Current State of Sharing, 226
WORK-FAMILY BALANCE, 227
Overworked and Underworked Americans, 228
When Demands of Work and Family Life Conflict, 229
Task Size, 229
Task Stress, 230
Toward a Family-Responsive Workplace?, 232
Looking Back, 235
Study Questions, 235
Key Terms, 236
Thinking about Families, 236

Boxed Features
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Paid Parental Leave, 233

Part Four Links across the Generations, 237

Chapter 9 Children and Parents, 239

Looking Forward, 240

WHAT ARE PARENTS SUPPOSED TO DO FOR

CHILDREN?, 240
Socialization as Support and Control, 241
Socialization and Ethnicity, 241
Socialization and Social Class, 242
Socialization and Gender, 243
Religion and Socialization, 244
What’s Important?, 244
What Difference Do Fathers Make?, 245
Adoption, 246
Domestic Adoption, 247
Transnational Adoption, 247
Lesbian and Gay Parenthood, 249
WHAT MIGHT PREVENT PARENTS FROM DOING
WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO?, 250
Unemployment and Poverty, 250
Unemployment, 251
Poverty, 252
Family Instability, 252
Different Kinds of Households, 253
Multiple Transitions, 254
Family Complexity, 254
Mass Incarceration, 255
xiv Contents

Time Apart, 256

How Parents Compensate for Time Apart, 256
The Consequences of Nonparental Care, 257
THE WELL-BEING OF AMERICAN CHILDREN, 257
Which Children?, 257
Diverging Destinies, 259
Poor and Wealthy Children, 260
Children in the Middle, 260
Looking Back, 262
Study Questions, 263
Key Terms, 263
Thinking about Families, 263

Boxed Features
  HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: Measuring the
Well-Being of Children, 258
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Do Children Have Rights?, 261

Chapter 10 Older People and Their Families, 265

Looking Forward, 266

THE MODERNIZATION OF OLD AGE, 268

Mortality Decline, 268
The Statistics, 268
The Social Consequences, 268
Fertility Decline, 270
Rising Standard of Living, 271
Variations by Age, Race, and Gender, 271
Social Consequences, 272
Separate Living Arrangements, 274
Contact, 277
INTERGENERATIONAL SUPPORT, 278
Mutual Assistance, 278
Altruism, 279
Exchange, 279
Moving in with Grandparents, 280
Multigenerational Households, 280
Skipped-Generation Households, 281
Rewards and Costs, 281
The Return of the Extended Family?, 281
Care of Older Persons with Disabilities, 283
The Rewards and Costs of Caregiving, 284
THE QUALITY OF INTERGENERATIONAL TIES, 284
Intergenerational Solidarity, 285
Intergenerational Conflict and Ambivalence, 288
The Effects of Divorce and Remarriage, 289
 Contents xv

THE FAMILY NATIONAL GUARD, 290

Looking Back, 292
Study Questions, 293
Key Terms, 294
Thinking about Families, 294

Boxed Features
  FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Financing Social Security
and Medicare, 272

Part Five Conflict, Disruption, and Reconstitution, 295

Chapter 11 Domestic Violence, 297

Looking Forward, 298
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, 299
Early History, 299
The Twentieth Century, 300
The Political Model of Domestic Violence, 300
The Medical Model of Domestic Violence, 300
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE, 302
Two Kinds of Violence?, 302
Trends and Prevalence in Intimate Partner Violence, 305
Trends, 305
Prevalence, 306
Which Partnerships Are at Risk?, 308
Marital Status, 308
Social Class, 308
Child Abuse, 309
Incidence, 310
Sexual Abuse and Its Consequences, 311
Physical Abuse and Its Consequences, 312
Poly-victimization, 313
Poverty or Abuse?, 313
Elder Abuse, 313
SEXUAL AGGRESSION AND VIOLENCE IN EMERGING ADULTHOOD, 317
EXPLANATIONS, 319
Social Learning Perspective, 320
Frustration–Aggression Perspective, 320
Social Exchange Perspective, 321
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY, 322
Policy Choices, 322
Social Programs, 323
Looking Back, 324
Study Questions, 325
xvi Contents

Key Terms, 326

Thinking about Families, 326

Boxed Features
  HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: Advocates and Estimates:
How Large (or Small) Are Social Problems?, 306
  FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: The Swinging Pendulum of Foster
Care Policy, 314

Chapter 12  nion Dissolution and

U
Repartnering, 329
Looking Forward, 330

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH UNION DISSOLUTION, 333

Societal Risk Factors, 333
Cultural Change, 334
Men’s Employment, 334
Women’s Employment, 335
Summing Up, 335
Individual Risk Factors, 336
Age at Entry into Union, 336
Race and Ethnicity, 336
Premarital Cohabitation, 337
Parental Divorce, 338
Spouse’s Similarity, 338
HOW UNION DISSOLUTION AFFECTS CHILDREN, 339
Child Custody, 339
Contact, 340
Economic Support, 341
Psychosocial Effects, 344
The Crisis Period, 344
Multiple Transitions, 345
Long-term Adjustment, 345
Genetically Informed Studies, 347
In Sum, 348
REPARTNERING, 349
Stepfamily Diversity, 349
The Demography of Stepfamilies and Remarriages, 350
THE EFFECTS OF STEPFAMILY LIFE ON CHILDREN, 351
Cohabiting v. Married Stepfamilies, 352
Age at Leaving Home, 352
UNION DISSOLUTION AND REPARTNERING: SOME LESSONS, 353
The Primacy of the Private Family, 353
New Kinship Ties, 355
The Impact on Children, 356
 Contents xvii

Looking Back, 357

Study Questions, 358
Key Terms, 359
Thinking about Families, 359

Boxed Features
  HOW DO SOCIOLOGISTS KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW?: Measuring the Divorce Rate, 331
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: Child Support Obligations, 342

Part Six Family, Society, and World, 361

Chapter 13 International Family Change, 363

Looking Forward, 364

THE CONVERGENCE THESIS, 365

THE GLOBAL SOUTH, 366
The Decline of Parental Control, 367
Rising Age at Marriage, 368
Hybrid Marriage, 369
The Spread of the Companionate Ideal, 371
How Social Norms Change, 372
The Spread of Postmodern Ideals, 374
The Decline of Fertility, 375
GLOBALIZATION AND FAMILY CHANGE, 375
The Globalization of Production, 376
Transnational Families, 377
FAMILY CHANGE IN THE WESTERN NATIONS, 380
Globalization and Family Diversity in the West, 381
The Return to Complexity, 382
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE, 383
Looking Back, 385
Study Questions, 386
Key Terms, 386
Thinking about Families, 387

Chapter 14  he Family, the State, and Social

T
Policy, 389
Looking Forward, 390

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WELFARE STATE, 393

The Welfare State, 393
The Rise and Fall of the Family Wage System, 394
xviii Contents

FAMILY POLICY DEBATES, 396

The Conservative Viewpoint, 396
The Liberal Viewpoint, 398
Which Families Are Poor?, 399
SUPPORTING THE WORKING POOR, 400
The Earned Income Tax Credit, 401
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, 402
Reasons for the Policy Reversal, 403
The Effects of Welfare Reform, 404
CURRENT DEBATES, 405
Supporting Marriage, 405
Same-Sex Marriage, 406
Nonmarital Childbearing, 407
Responsible Fatherhood, 408
Work–Family Balance, 409
SIGNS OF CONVERGENCE?, 411
Looking Back, 412
Study Questions, 413
Key Terms, 413
Thinking about Families, 413

Boxed Features
   FAMILIES AND PUBLIC POLICY: The Abortion Dilemma, 397
Glossary, 414
References, 420
Name Index, 450
Subject Index, 458
 List of Boxes
Families and Public Policy
Chapter
3 Do Employers Discriminate Against Women?, 84
  4 Homelessness, by the Numbers, 106
  5 How Should Multiracial Families Be Counted?, 124
  6 The Rise and Fall of the Teenage Pregnancy Problem, 176
  7 The Legal Rights of Cohabiting Couples, 189
  8 Paid Parental Leave, 233
  9 Do Children Have Rights?, 261
10 Financing Social Security and Medicare, 272
11 The Swinging Pendulum of Foster Care Policy, 314
12 Child Support Obligations, 342
14 The Abortion Dilemma, 397

How Do Sociologists Know What They Know?

Chapter
1 The National Surveys, 18
  3 Feminist Research Methods, 80
  6 Asking about Sensitive Behavior, 162
  9 Measuring the Well-Being of Children, 258
11 Advocates and Estimates: How Large (or Small) Are Social Problems?, 306
12 Measuring the Divorce Rate, 331

xix
 Preface
The sociology of the family is deceptively hard to study. Unlike, say, physics, the
topic is familiar (a word whose very root is Latin for “family”) because virtually
everyone grows up in families. Therefore, it can seem “easy” to study the family
because students can bring to bear their personal knowledge of the subject. Some
textbooks play to this familiarity by mainly providing students with an opportunity
to better understand their private lives. The authors never stray too far from the
individual experiences of the readers, focusing on personal choices such as whether
to marry and whether to have children. To be sure, giving students insight into the
social forces that shape their personal decisions about family life is a worthwhile
objective. Nevertheless, the challenge of writing about the sociology of the family is
also to help students understand that the significance of families extends beyond
personal experience. Today, as in the past, the family is the site of not only private
decisions but also activities that matter to our society as a whole.
These activities center on taking care of people who are unable to fully care for
themselves, most notably children and the elderly. Anyone who follows social issues
knows of the often-expressed concern about whether, given developments such as the
increases in divorce and childbearing outside of marriage, we are raising the next gen-
eration adequately. Anyone anxious about the well-being of the rapidly expanding
older population (as well as the escalating cost of providing financial and medical assis-
tance to them) knows the concern about whether family members will continue to
provide adequate assistance to them. Indeed, rarely does a month pass without these
issues appearing on the covers of magazines and the front pages of newspapers.
In this textbook, consequently, I have written about the family in two senses: the
private family, in which we live most of our personal lives, and the public family, in
which adults perform tasks that are important to society. My goal is to give students
a thorough grounding in both aspects. It is true that the two are related—taking care
of children adequately, for instance, requires the love and affection that family mem-
bers express privately toward each other. But the public side of the family deserves
equal time with the private side.

Organization
This book is divided into 6 parts and 14 chapters. Part One (“Introduction”) introduces
the concepts of public and private families and examines how sociologists and other
social scientists study them. It also provides an overview of the history of the family.
Part Two (“Gender, Class, and Race-Ethnicity”) deals with the three key dimensions of
social stratification in family life: gender, social class, and race-ethnicity. In Part Three
(“Sexuality, Partnership, and Marriage”), the focus shifts to the private family. The sec-
tion examines the emergence of the modern concept of sexuality, the formation of
partnerships, and the degree of persistence and change in the institution of marriage.
Finally, it covers the complex connections between work and family.
Part Four (“Links across the Generations”) explores how well the public family is
meeting its responsibilities for children and the elderly. Part Five (“Conflict, Disruption,
xxi
xxii Preface

and Reconstitution”) deals with the consequences of conflict and disruption in family
life. It first studies intimate partner violence. Then the formation and dissolution of mar-
riages and cohabiting unions are discussed. Finally, in Part Six (“Family, Society, and
World”) family change around the world and social and political issues involving the
family and the state are discussed.

Special Features
Public and Private Families is distinguishable from other textbooks in several impor-
tant ways.
First and foremost, it explores both the public and the private family. The ­public/
private distinction that underlies the book’s structure is intended to provide a more
balanced portrait of contemporary life. Furthermore, the focus on the public family
leads to a much greater emphasis on government policy toward the family than in
most other textbooks. In fact, most chapters include a short, boxed essay under the
general title, “Families and Public Policy,” to stimulate student interest and make the
book relevant to current political debates.
In addition to this unique emphasis on both the Public and Private Families,
the text:
• Addresses the global nature of family change. Although the emphasis in the
book is on the contemporary United States, no text should ignore the impor-
tant cross-national connections among families in our globalized economy.
New in this edition, the text includes a chapter on “International Family
Change” that provides a comprehensive treatment of the major types of
change that are occurring in family life around the world (Chapter 13).
• Includes distinctive chapters. The attention to the public family led me to write
several chapters that are not included in some sociology of the family textbooks.
These include, in addition to the new chapter on international family change,
Chapter 14, “The Family, the State, and Social Policy,” and Chapter 10, “Older
People and Their Families.” These chapters examine issues of great current inter-
est, such as income assistance to poor families, the costs of the Social Security
and Medicare programs, and the extension of marriage to same-sex couples.
Throughout these and other chapters, variations by race, ethnicity, and gender
are explored.
• Gives special attention to the research methods used by family sociologists.
To give students an understanding of how sociologists study the family, I
include a section in Chapter 1 titled, “How Do Family Sociologists Know What
They Know?” This material explains the ways that family sociologists go about
their research. Then in other chapters, I include boxed essays under a similar
title on subjects ranging from national surveys to feminist research methods.

Pedagogy
Each chapter begins in a way that engages the reader: the controversy over whether
the Scarborough 11 in Hartford, Connecticut, constitute a family (Chapter 1); the
transgender moment (Chapter 3); the letters that Alexander Hamilton wrote to a
man he loved (Chapter 6); the courtship of Maud Rittenhouse in the 1880s
(Chapter 7); and so forth. And each of the six parts of the book is preceded by a
brief introduction that sets the stage.
 Preface xxiii

Several Quick Review boxes in each chapter include bulleted, one-sentence summa-
ries of the key points of the preceding sections. Each chapter also contains the follow-
ing types of questions:
• Looking Forward—Questions that preview the chapter themes and topics.
• Ask Yourself—Two questions that appear at the end of each of the boxed features.
• Looking Back—Looking Forward questions reiterated at the end of each chap-
ter, around which the chapter summaries are organized.
• Thinking about Families—Two questions that appear at the end of each chapter
and are designed to encourage critical thinking about the “public” and the
“private” family.

What’s New in Each Chapter?

As always, all statistics in the text and all figures have been updated whenever pos-
sible. Many minor revisions have been made in each chapter. The most prominent
addition is a new chapter on international family change. It pulls together some
material that had been included in other chapters in the previous editions, but it
also adds much new material. Other changes are presented in the following list:
CHAPTER 1. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FAMILIES
• A discussion of the “Scarborough 11” controversy and what it can teach us
about the definition of the family begins the chapter.
• The section on “Marriage and Individualism” has been moved to later in the
chapter and retitled “Family Life and Individualism.”
• The “Families and the Great Recession” boxed features that were in several
chapters in the previous editions have been deleted now that the Great Reces-
sion has been over for several years.
CHAPTER 2. THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY
• The family and public policy boxed feature on divorce reform, which was out
of date given the recent decline in divorce, has been deleted. Chapters 3
through 13 still include family and public policy boxes.
• The stage of life that was called “early adulthood” in the previous edition is
now called “emerging adulthood,” which is the term most researchers and
writers are using.
• Discussion of Lawrence Stone’s term affective individualism, which is not used
much in current work, has been deleted. However, individualism and its two
forms, utilitarian individualism and expressive individualism, are still empha-
sized. See the “Family Life and Individualism” section of Chapter 1.
CHAPTER 3. GENDER AND FAMILIES
• An opening section that discusses the great increase in public attention to
transgender people has been added.
• A new subsection on intersectionality has been added.
• The boxed feature “Feminist Research Methods” has been updated.
CHAPTER 4. SOCIAL CLASS AND FAMILY INEQUALITY
• The section on “Family Life and the Globalization of Production” has been
moved to the new Chapter 13 on “International Family Change.”
xxiv Preface

• Citations to growing middle-class parental investment of time and money in

children’s development are new.
CHAPTER 5. RACE, ETHNICITY, AND FAMILIES
• The “How Should Multiracial Families Be Counted?” boxed feature has been
updated to discuss how the Census Bureau is considering dropping the term
“race” from the 2020 Census.
• Updated section on Mexican Americans notes that net migration from Mexico
is nearly zero.
• Discussion of the intermarriage boom has been updated.
CHAPTER 6. SEXUALITIES
• The section on hooking up has been moved from Chapter 7 to this chapter.
CHAPTER 7. COHABITATION AND MARRIAGE
• Same-sex marriage is discussed in a new subsection.
• Recent articles claiming that a new equilibrium of stable, egalitarian marriage
is emerging in most Western countries are discussed.
• The section on living apart relationships has been moved from Chapter 6 to
this chapter.
• The subsection on “The Globalization of Love” has been moved to new Chapter 13.
CHAPTER 8. WORK AND FAMILIES
• The chapter now opens with a section on the Fast-Forward Families study of
working parents in the Los Angeles area.
• An up-to-date consideration of parental time use is included.
CHAPTER 9. CHILDREN AND PARENTS
• Discussion includes the friend-of-the-court brief submitted by the American
Sociological Association comparing children raised by gay or lesbian parents
with children raised by heterosexual parents.
• The decline in the number of transnational adoptions is discussed.
• The section on transnational families has been moved to new Chapter 13.
CHAPTER 10. OLDER PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES
• The term active life expectancy has been replaced by health span, following cur-
rent practice, and the discussion of life expectancy and health span has been
revised.
• The latest figures on spending levels and trends in Social Security, Medicare,
and Medicaid are provided.
CHAPTER 11. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
• The type of intimate partner violence previously labelled intimate terrorism is
now called coercive controlling violence, a change that is happening in the litera-
ture. I was never a fan of the term “intimate terrorism.” The new terminology
is also more consistent with the other main type of intimate partner violence,
situational couple violence.
• Greater attention is given to research and legislation on intimate violence
among LGBT people.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
"Marshal, sir, there are nine of them," said the technician.
"Well," interrupted Kane, "there are nine planets, aren't there?"
"Not from one of them," answered the technician. "Or," he asked
Maynard, "would we appear along with the rest?"
"No," said Maynard slowly. "You're right. There are nine planets,
which counting the one we're on makes a total of ten."
"You realize what you're saying?" stammered Kane. "That means
you've discovered a new planet with this gadget."
Maynard shook his head in dazed unbelief. "Another planet?" Then
he shook off the amazement and said: "It may be so. But before we
shout too loud, we must investigate and be certain."
"Of course."
Maynard turned the stellar intensity knob up slightly, bringing the
stellar background into faint light. "Get the constants of that planet,
and we'll check. Kane, you'll come along as a representative of the
Terran Press?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world itself," said Kane. "Any chance of
missing it?"
"If we get the linear constant of that planet from Pluto, here, we'll line-
drive out there. Once within a few million miles, passing by if need be,
we'll know it."
"Couldn't we pack this thing aboard the Orionad?"
"Not unless we tear the side out of the ship," grinned Maynard. "We'll
fly this blind, and that won't be too hard."
"And then we may find that planet is but a flyspeck," said Kane.
"It could be," agreed Maynard. But he knew better. He was thinking of
a huge panel; a brilliant painting in a vast hall lined with paintings.
The one he faced showed Sol—and ten planets.
And Maynard had patiently waited for all these years for the stellar
light-filter to be built. He knew that the unknown planet was so far
from Sol and at such an angle that it would remain unseen until they
made the filter work. After all, it had been unseen for hundreds of
years during the advent of space travel, and for hundreds of years of
pure stellar research from Terra before space travel gave the
astronomers a chance to prove their planetary theories. He had not
been worried that his find would be found too soon, but he would
have broken all rules to get to Pluto at the time he did. Luckily, there
was no reason to break rules.
Now he could go anywhere and do anything except the short periods
when he was under explicit orders.
He wondered whether his action had been too abrupt, and then
remembered that his position permitted a large amount of snap-
decision and some eccentricity. The quickness of his action would
add to the legends of one Guy Maynard, and would cover up the fact
that he had been planning this particular party for years.
At the end of the usual landing duration, Guy gave orders for the
Orionad to go out to the new planet.

X.
Die-straight, the Orionad flew. On a course tangent to the orbit of
Pluto, on and on and on beyond the limits of the Solar System, out to
a position almost twice the distance from Pluto to Sol; a distance of
7,180,000,000 miles. And there Maynard looked down upon the globe
of another world.
"There it is," he said to Kane in what he hoped to sound like awe.
"I'd never have believed it," breathed Kane.
"The funny part," said Maynard in a surprised tone, "is that this planet
is about the correct distance for agreement with Bode's Law for Pluto,
which is not met. Wonder why it never occurred to the brass hats to
look in the 'Bode Position' all the way around."
"Neptune sort of screwed Bode's Law up," smiled Kane. "It is the fly in
the ointment. If you set up Bode's Law and check for Neptune, you
find that Pluto occupies that position, while Neptune is in a
supposedly unoccupied position. Neptune is an interloper."
"Wonder why he came," mused Maynard.
"Probably got here and couldn't leave," said Kane. "Well, Guy, if
nothing else, you've re-established the value of Bode's Law. Proper
continuity on either side of a discontinuous section—Neptune—
indicates to me that the Law is correct. It is the presence of an alien
planet that is the troublemaker."
"Is there anything on that planet?"
"I wouldn't know. Has three moons, though. Guy, how could anything
live on this planet ... you're entitled to name it, you know, since you
discovered it."
"I discovered it?"
"You'll get the credit, and not without reason, Guy."
Guy shrugged. "We'll call him Mephisto. I'm going to run in close,
Kane. I'd like some initial information on this planet before we return."
He called into the communicator: "Marshal to Executive: Until further
notice, we shall call this planet 'Mephisto.' Therefore, circle Mephisto
at one thousand miles. Have the technician's crew take all data
possible. Have the astrogator check his constants, and if possible,
get an initial estimate of Mephisto's velocity, orbit, and ecliptic angle."
"Executive to Marshal: Check."
The answer to Kane's idle question as to the possibility of Mephisto
being inhabited came with a distinctness that left no doubt. Not only
was Mephisto inhabited, but Mephisto harbored intelligent life. And
the intelligent life either resented the arrival of the Orionad, or thought
that the Orionad was the vanguard of a special invasion.
At any rate, both were correct. And no matter what the inhabitants of
Mephisto thought, they acted.
The detectors rang in alarm, and automatic circuits closed. The big
turrets of the Orionad whipped around with speed enough to warm
their almost frictionless bearings in the brief arc. They threw their
surge on the ordnance-supply lines, and the meters jumped high. The
big AutoMacMillans emitted their energy silently and invisibly, and
seven great gouts of flame bloomed in the space between Mephisto
and Orionad.
They swiveled slightly and fired a second time, and four more
blossoms of flame spread, this time closer to the Orionad. Upon the
third attack, the flashes were very close to the super ship.
"Ships—or torpedoes?" asked Kane.
"Torpedoes," said Maynard definitely.
"How can you tell?" asked Kane.
"Ships would have flared less brilliantly and more slowly. It takes a
well-loaded warhead to blast that way. The fierceness and the
velocity of the blast give the answer to that one. Also, those things
were coming up at better than a thousand G, all the way. That's
guessing that they all started at once or nearly so. In order to
separate that much in the distance they covered, and to cover so
much distance between the first, second, and third contacts the
acceleration must be about that high." He snapped the communicator
and asked: "Marshal to Executive: What was the acceleration of the
exploded bodies?"
The answer came immediately. "Approximately, 941-G, according to
the recorders on the detector circuits."
"Good-bye, Guy."
"Lots of practice," said Maynard. "Well, we're heading back. I'm not
going to risk the Orionad in a single-handed battle against a whole
planet. Even if I won, they'd bust me flat. We'll head for Terra and set
us up a real punitive expedition. Then we'll return and take Mephisto
for Terra!"

The Orionad based at Sahara Base and Maynard went into the
Bureau of Exploration building. His entry into Malcolm Greggor's
office was easy, and he told the space marshal about his discovery.
Greggor's reaction was first doubt, but Maynard called Kane and his
executive officer, and when Greggor was convinced, his excitement
knew no bounds.
He called an immediate conference with the head of several bureaus,
and told Maynard he was to remain, and then added Kane to the list.
Once assembled, Maynard explained the details, complete, and
Malcolm Greggor opened the discussion by stating: "This will be
difficult. They resent us. If we go in at all, we must go in armed to the
teeth, and expect trouble all the way."
Mantley, of the Bureau of Ordnance, said: "You expect anything
unique in ordnance, Maynard?"
"I hardly think so. On the other hand, they have space travel, as
witness those torpedoes. They must have a definite isolation policy,
otherwise they would have contacted us long ago."
"Not necessarily," objected the head of the Bureau of Exploration.
"They may be alien—they must be utterly alien to inhabit a planet that
far from Sol. What form they take, or what their chemistry might be, I
have no idea. Furthermore, I don't care, and if I ask about it, it'll be
academically only. They exist, they have science. They do not like us.
Perhaps they know of us, and realize that any traffic with us of the
inner worlds is impossible."
"Their attitude in firing upon the Orionad gives us no alternative," said
Mantley. He turned to Garlinger, and asked: "We haven't heard from
the Bureau of Maneuvers, yet. Have any ideas?"
"It'll be out and out war," said Garlinger. "I'm certain that we made no
warlike move in merely visiting them. They've been in preferred
isolation, and now that we've discovered them, they fire on us,
without provocation. My guess is that we'd not only be better off going
in armed, but we'd best prepare for countermeasures, counterattack,
and all the trimmings. Now that they've been smoked out, I'll bet they
won't sit there on their icy planet and wait for us to come a-blasting."
"How and why have they developed space travel," asked Greggor, "if
they care nothing for interplanetary commerce?"
"Their moons," suggested Kane. "There were signs of inhabitation on
all three of them."
"This is going to be more difficult than I thought. The problem of
breaching a planet alone is one that has seldom been tried. But if
Mephisto has three armed moons, that's another item to consider.
Well, fellows, it has never been Terra's way to go in with less than all
we have. If we have ten million men that never see Mephisto from
anything but the viewports of the transports, we'll be better off than if
we were blasted to every last man for not having enough of them. It'll
be a full-scale attack, gentlemen."
"More than that, Garlinger, we'll get lots of practise."
"Meaning?"
"Some day we're going to be forced into fighting Mars on an all-out
basis. This will be excellent experience. I believe that Mars will be the
harder to fight, gentlemen. After all, knowing your enemy makes the
battle easier—and they know us very well. So if we correct our
mistakes on Mephisto, and take the resulting plan to Mars, we may
break this deadlock between Mars and Terra forever."
"No one here doubts that it will be an all-out attack," said Mantley.
"We'll have to mobilize—and that's your job, Donigan."
"Yup," drawled Donigan. "After you boys get all done making your
plans, you hand it to me. Uh-huh—and after I get 'em, it's war with a
capital W. Gentlemen, is it your wish that the Bureau of Warfare take
over from here on in?"
"It is."
"My aides will present to you the requirements of the Bureau of
Warfare as soon as they can be pulled from the files. You will break
the news," he said to Kane, "immediately, and in headline form only.
Mere mention, in this case, of the new planet, and Guy Maynard, the
discoverer. Meanwhile I'll have the Bureau of Propaganda prepare a
news-campaign for you, which you will follow within reason."
"With nothing to print but the mere discovery of Mephisto," smiled
Kane, "I'll be forced to play up Patrol Marshal Maynard. That all
right?"
"Oh certainly. After all, he's fairly well-known and it will seem only
right that a well-known figure gets the limelight. I see your problem;
you can't break a lonely headline."
"I must at least fill up one column, and even with eighteen point type it
takes words. We'll prepare the way, though."
"I want Maynard," said Donigan suddenly.
"The Bureau of Warfare runs this show," nodded Mantley. "May I ask
what for?"
"He'll command one phase of the attack. And it will look well that the
discoverer leads the battle. It implies that we have implicit confidence
in him, in spite of his youth."
"Will he require an increase in rank?"
"Not at the present time. That will come as necessary. But let's close
this. Time is important; Mephisto will be mobilizing even as we are."
"May I use the official wire?" asked Kane. "And one more item. What
about secrecy?"
"A thing this big can not be kept a secret," answered Donigan. "We
haven't enough men and materiel to successfully attack a militant
planet. Therefore we must recruit men, and get the manufacturers to
produce supplies. Mars—I believe—will sit tight and wait until we take
the initiative. A move on their part will hinge upon our success or
failure on Mephisto. Break it wide and big, Kane. And send it out on
the interplanetary service. Mars may as well have something to think
of. We know she will never attack Terra as long as the Terran Space
Patrol maintains a fleet. Mars is too small and, therefore, too easy to
cover compared to Terra. Go ahead and break your story, Kane."

Kane was as good as his word. It hit the newsstands that evening, in
three-inch headlines. They said nothing more than the hourly news-
broadcasts for news, but Kane's writers had done an excellent job in
building Maynard up as the man of the hour.
And then the report of the attack followed. Guy Maynard,
commanding the Orionad, had been fired upon without provocation
as he attempted to run in close to the new planet for photographic
records. The bursting of the torpedoes was pictured in the newscasts
in all their blasting flame, and the pictures suffered nothing from the
film record.
Guy Maynard was then called upon to face the iconoscopes. He
looked into the faces of three hundred billion Terrans and told them
simply and forcefully that Mephisto's military action prevented any
peaceful negotiations, and that it was certain that they were even now
preparing to maintain their isolation.
"And," he finished, "we know that isolation can not be defended. To
preserve isolation, the enemy must be destroyed on his home base.
We can expect attack from Mephisto unless we tackle them first. And
to take the battle from Terra to them, we need men, material, and all
the myriad of things that follow."
The recruiting posters hit the public next, and all of the machinery of
war was started. And though it rolled in the super-slow gear at first, it
would pick up momentum as time went on. All that the Patrol needed
was a backlog to replace losses, and with that assured within the next
few months, the mighty fleet of the Terran Space Patrol assembled at
Sahara Base, formed a complex space lattice, and drove outward
towards Mephisto.

Inexorably, the Terran battle fleet drove onward. Massively

ponderous; immobile in its chosen course, the massed fleet flashed
up through the velocity range to mid-course, made their complex
turnover, and started to decelerate. Hours passed, grew into days,
and the days added one to the other, and the lattice was maintained
with precision and perfection. Hardly a centimeter of vacillation was
observed from ship to ship, and from the Orionad in the center of the
space lattice, it seemed as though the monstrous, assembled fleet
were truly set in a huge glasslike jelly, immobilized.
But it was a wary personnel that manned the huge Terran Space
Patrol task force. They expected something. And the fact that so
many hours and days had gone without interruption did not make
them less restive. Each moment that went without trouble brought
more certain the chance of excitement in the next. It was a beautiful
war of nerves, with the Terrans getting more and more certain of
attack as the hours sped on and the fleet's velocity dropped to far
below the lightning-speed of the maximum at turnover.
The watch was not stirring, save that the crews were on the constant
alert for the clangor of the alarms; and the detectors were operating
at overload range which gave them plenty of time to get into action—
barring something superior in the way of weapons. Far better than
human senses were the detectors, and they could be relied upon.
Surprise was impossible because attack was inevitable. And since
the human element of watching was eliminated by the ever-alert
detectors and the element of counterattack was automatic with the
turret-coupled AutoMacs, it was only a matter of time. As one, the
fleet moved through the vastness of space between the orbit of Pluto
and their goal.
Guy Maynard prowled his scanning room impatiently. In the easy-
chair beside the broad desk, Ben Williamson lazed without apparent
excitement. Upon the twentieth cigarette, Ben said softly: "You should
take it easy, Guy."
"Like you?" asked Maynard. "You look calm—but!"
"I know all about it. But remember, even though it's action you crave;
you're the big boss on this expedition and you'll be able to do nothing
but watch."
"Watch—and pray that my plans are effective. Uh-huh. But talking it
down won't lessen the tension."
"Wait 'em out, Guy. They'll come soon enough."
Guy snorted, tossed his cigarette into the wastebasket and tried to
relax. A matter of time, all right. Well, maybe he could wait in
patience. At best he'd have to wait until the Mephistans were ready to
attack.
When it came, it was swift to start and equally swift to end. From one
side there came a fast-moving jet of tiny spacecraft. At unthinkable
velocities, the thin stream poured into the space pattern of the
Terrans.
The clangor of the alarm ceased as contacts were opened. The
communications band roared with cries and questions.
"Who got it?"
"Scorpiad!"
"Bad?"
"Not yet."
"Get out the fighter-cover!"
"They're coming—give us time!"
"Time, hell! This is a space fight, not a pink tea!"

The turrets of the Scorpiad danced back and forth in a mad pattern.
At the end of each lightning move they paused. At each pause they
vomited unseen energy that catapulted the temperature of the
Mephistan ship into incandescence.
The sky beside the moving fleet was dotted with winks of light as the
fencing AutoMacs parried the rapier thrusts of the tiny fighters. More
ships poured into the arrowing horde, and the dancing turrets raced
madly to keep up their program. They lost space, and the wall of
coruscating death moved inward.
From long range the Pleiad opened fire, and the dancing motes of
flame moved back as the overloaded detectors found more time to
focus upon the incoming horde.
Maynard mopped his forehead, one half at a time to permit at least
one eye on the celestial globe during the job. "That was close," he
snapped.
"It ain't over yet!" said Williamson shortly.
"No ... here comes another line of those devils ... at Pleiad!"
"They're not afraid to die!"
"They seem to want it!"
The Pleiad stopped the long-range fire and began to take care of the
horde that was striking at her direct. Pleiad was capable of handling
this new attack easily, but it left the brunt of the heavy attack on the
Scorpiad.
Once more the flashing motes moved inward as the detectors found
themselves unable to keep up. And still more of the tiny ships poured
into the stream, and the borderline of death moved into almost-
contact with the constellation ship.
A burst of flame came from the flank of the Scorpiad, and the ports
flashed outward, followed by gouts of smoke and incandescence.
Four red spots spread outward on the Scorpiad's hull, and the
constellation ship lost drive. Unable to keep up the deceleration of the
rest of the Terran fleet, Scorpiad fell out of position and dropped
below the fleet—farther and farther ahead.
A blinding flash of flame came and died.
"Gone!" moaned Maynard.
"But what a cost!" said Ben.
"No cost is worth it!" said Maynard. Then he calmed and added:
"Accursed business. But we may be ahead in the exchange."
"It's brutal," agreed Ben. "Let's keep 'em from getting another."
"Might be robots."
"Nope. If so, the technicians would have scrambled 'em. What's
making now?"
"The fighter-cover! It's arrived!"
The incoming jet of Mephistan fighters wavered like a gas flame in a
high wind, and scintillations scarred the perfection of the needling
ships. The long-range fire of the constellation ships picked off the
aimlessly moving ships and as the flaming specks reached an
almost-solid appearance, the jet of tiny fighters ceased abruptly.
"Stopped 'em!"
Maynard nodded. "For the time."
The communicator spoke: "Commander to Marshal: Located the
mother-fleet."
"Yes?"
"We're hitting them now—as per orders. But this is a warning. If we
don't stop 'em first, they'll be there in fifteen minutes. They're on
collision course!"
"Expected that," said Guy, worriedly.
"O.K.," said Ben in what he hoped would be an encouragement. "Now
we'll see if your battle-plan works."
"I keep worrying that it won't."
"If it didn't have merit," observed Ben dryly, "it wouldn't have been
adopted."
"I want to get out there and pitch."
"You gotta stay in here and hope they pitch to your call," said
Williamson.

Twelve minutes later, the Mephistan fleet came into long-detector

range, and the entire Terran fleet opened fire. The heavies, still
circling the fleet, took up the job as soon as they came into range,
and the space between became filled with flashes of fire as crossed
MacMillan beams neutralized one another and spent their mighty
energies in light and heat. The power rooms of the ships became a
noisy clatter of automatically opening and closing circuit breakers as
the MacMillan overloads worked the safety-circuits. Now and then the
ultra-loud clamor of the fuse alarms rang out above the chattering
racket, and the power gangs worked furiously to replace master line-
fuses while the rest of the ship fumed and fretted without power for
offense or defense.
The heavies—the sluggers—got between the constellation ships and
the Mephistans, and their super-powered AutoMacs outfought the
lighter turret-mounts of the Mephistans.
They took their long-range toll, and then as the Mephistans came into
torpedo range, the sluggers fell back through the open-work pattern
of the constellation ships. From here on in, the omni-powerful
battlecraft would have to face battle with every weapon.
Unleashed energy filled the gap between the fleets, and the sky
below the decelerating ships became a blazing graveyard of ruin as
the ships lost drive and went free, falling ahead of the main body.
Word flashed through the Terran fleet that the Centuriad II had
discovered the interference frequency of the Mephistan torpedoes.
Technicians in all Terran ships shifted their transmitters to the called
frequency, and the torpedoes lost their aiming perfection.
But they were not safe.
Wandering torpedoes continued to roam in among the Terran fleet
and touched off fountains of flame and death.
Then from point-blank range, the sub-ships of Terra flashed in
through the Mephistan fleet. In one great swarm they came. From the
virtual zero of the detectors—that in-close distance that limited the
minimum range—torpedoes dropped into being from nowhere and hit
full upon ship after ship.
The Mephistan fleet became a flaring holocaust of coruscating flame.
When the fifteen-minute deadline came, the Terrans fought a
remainder of the huge Mephistan horde that had tried to stop them.
The dead hulls, still incandescent, were easy to dodge, though most
of them had fallen free long enough before to have them cross Terra's
course ahead rather than at coincidence.
Combining the big turrets of the sluggers with the primary, secondary,
and tertiary batteries of the constellation ships, Terra's forces fairly
crushed the fragments of Mephisto's horde that remained.

And then the sky was clear once more. The winking lights of death
were silent. The furor and clatter of the instrument rooms ceased
more slowly as the alarms continued to pick out detritus and to reject
such harmless stuff. The power rooms were quiet, too, and the
generator rooms no longer resounded to the scream of overworked
generators. A clean-up began, and droplets of metal from blown
fuses mingled with blackened bits of contalloy from the circuit
breakers. Pyrometers dropped back to the central portion of their
scales, and the air, acrid and warm, cooled and became sweet again.
They looked, and saw that the sky was theirs—completely.
Mephisto was a disk in the sky below them.
It beckoned—or did it taunt?

XI.
Terra deployed, encircled, and closed down upon Mephisto III. A
flurry of up-shooting energy broke out, catching the planet-slow
spacecraft easily. Down-fire crisscrossed the third moon of Mephisto,
silencing some batteries.
The sluggers made a compact mass, and dropped swiftly. Their
AutoMacs scored and re-scored a ten-mile square until no answering
fire returned. They spread, making a vast circle and spreading a
curtain of MacMillan fire as they spread. The lighter ships and the
fighter carriers circled up, around, and landed in the cleared area.
Constellation craft paced above the sluggers, beating off attempts to
break the tightly woven circle.
A barrier went up around the area, and the landed ships opened to
disgorge spacesuited men. Planet-mount detectors were set upon
prefabricated towers, and coupled AutoMacMillans pointed their mute
parabolic bowls at the sky, awaiting the impulse from the detectors.
The barrier increased in size as the sweeping ships spread, and as
the circle increased, more ships landed and set up more planet-
mounts.
With a hundred-mile moonhead established, Terra's forces relaxed to
rest, eat, and plan.
It was six solid weeks before Mephisto III belonged to Terra
completely. But it was not six solid weeks of constant fighting. Wars
are never constant fighting. Terra photographed the moon, and went
in picked groups to blast reinforced spots as they were discovered.
At first it was fairly easy to find the embattled spots. Then as the
Mephistans were cleaned out of area after area, the lesser spots
became harder to find. Time and again a previously-blasted spot
would return to life, and it became second nature for the Terrans to be
wary of any smaller place that adjoined a dead and blackened place.
The total energy sent against the smaller places rose higher than the
power directed at the larger places, since it appeared wise to give the
charred spots another blasting for safety.
But Terra widened her circle, covered a hemisphere, and then began
to tighten down on the other side.
The peak of effort was past, now, and with ever-lessening area to
cover, the job of blasting Mephisto III clean and free of Mephistans
dropped in magnitude.
Then like the closing of an iris, the circle of Terra's domain throttled
the resistance, and Mephisto III was completely in the hands of the
Terran forces.
Maynard called Sahara Base, reported, and called for reinforcements.
With orders to sit tight and hold on, Guy returned to the moon to
make the best of it. He hoped to have peace and quiet for a time, but
peace was not for them.
As Orionad passed inside of the barrier that blocked all radiation from
Mephisto III, a horde of Mephistan fighters circled down out of the
sky, came through the barrier, and made a suicide attack against the
ground forces.
Again they went through that saturation attack, and they silenced
battery after battery. The roar of the attack came through the almost-
nothing atmosphere, and the blasting of mighty bombs shook the
ground and misaligned delicate instruments. The answering fire was
terrific, and the fighters rose to fight the Mephistans off with sub-ships
and torpedoes.

Then this first raid was over. The Mephistans retreated and were
gone in seconds, leaving the massed flight of the Terran Space Patrol
with nothing to fight. They landed once again.
It was but a pattern for the days that followed. Regularly every thirty-
one hours, twelve minutes, and eight seconds, a horde of Mephistans
dropped down upon their third moon with all projectors blazing and
then fled before the Terrans could take the initiative against them. It
happened seven times this way, and then as the Terrans established
the regularity of the attack, the Mephistans shifted the time, leaving
the Terrans standing at their positions awaiting the order to go. Ten
hours passed with no attack, and then Maynard ordered his men to
relax. The wave of destruction came one hour later, and it was the
same as before. The next time came within ten hours after the
delayed fight, and the one after that waited until the Terrans were
almost exploding with anticipation before it came. Three came within
one day, and then nothing for a solid week.
Maynard swore and prowled his office in the Orionad. He lost sleep
and worried ten pounds away. Then he ordered the Orionad outside
of the barrier and contacted Sahara Base in person.
"Donigan?" he stormed. "When are the replacements coming?"
"Soon," said Space Marshal Donigan.
"That isn't good enough!" retorted Maynard. "This is no pink tea,
Donigan. This is a matter of life and death. We have the moonlet you
wanted for a base—we've had it for three weeks of sheer hell—and
you say 'Soon.' With what I've got left I can't even make a stab back.
It's no fun fighting a purely defensive fight, Donigan. You never know
when the devils will hit, and my men are tired of being surprised in
their beds."
"Do they do that all the time?" asked Donigan, thinking to chide Guy
for exaggeration.
"About seven times out of ten. We may not know them, Donigan, but
somehow they know us—all about us."
"What do you want?"
"Men, ordnance, materiel, hospital units, doctors, nurses, ships, and
planet-fighters."
"Guy, you aren't going to blast the planet itself?"
"I sure am. At least I can make the fight come when I want it. This
way, they'll blast us off of Three in another two weeks."
"You'll get them. They should be there now."
Maynard returned to the moonlet in hope—and he was watching the
sky when the Mephistans hit.
Out of the black sky came a downpour of deadly torpedoes. They
burst among the barracks, and though their detonations did no harm
in the ultrathin atmosphere of Mephisto III, the fragmentation shot the
shelters full of holes and the trapped Terran air escaped. Men died in
their sleep, that night, and the Mephistans covered the moonlet in
sub-ships of their own devising.
"Sub-ships!" breathed Maynard.
MacMillan beams sought the invisible enemy, and their random hits
were all too few. Maynard ordered them silenced, and the Terrans
hurled material torpedoes into the sky. Up among the Mephistan sub-
ships went the torpedoes, to burst with great, eye-searing gouts of
radiant energy.
Thousands of the energy torpedoes went aloft, and they served their
purpose. The barriers of the enemy ships collected the energy and
heated the sub-ships to utterly unlivable temperatures—for the
Mephistans. The ships dropped out of the sky—still enveloped in their
barriers—and burst open against the hard surface of Mephisto.

Three days later, the reinforcements arrived. Terrans by the million

swarmed the third moonlet of Mephisto, and the hemispherical
shelters dotted the surface. Cylindrical runways connected one to the
next so that spacesuits were not needed to pass from one to the
other. Gigantic, permanent-mount AutoMacMillans were set up in
readiness; and they assured protection against practically anything
that flew the skies.
With the coming of aid, life took on a less hectic appearance, and
smiles appeared once more. The medical corps took over, and the
injured men received better care than with the rugged life on the tiny
moon. Music filled the hemispheres, and though they could not go
outside because of the atmosphere, things smoothed out as time
went on. There were the reunions of old friends, and stories of those
hectic weeks on Mephisto III were recounted and amplified in the
time-honored Terran custom.
Even Guy Maynard.
He looked up from a sheet of figures into a familiar face and came to
his feet in a jump. "Joan Forbes! What are you doing here?"
Joan waved the comet-borne caduceus before him and said: "Senior
Aide Forbes, if you please. Fully graduated and ready for work."
"But ... when?"
"I've been studying for three years."
"What about the ptomaine-palace?"
"I had to work somewhere to pay my tuition."
"What ambition!"
"Now stop sounding like a grandfather, Guy Maynard."
"But this is no place for a woman," objected Guy.
"Isn't it? Someone has to do the work."
"But this is grim work."
"So is life, Guy. Someone has to care for the injured. We've got to be
here, you know. After all, we must be where the injured and dead are.
We can only help them when we're on the very spot."
"But I think—"
"It sounds grisly? Maybe it is. Look, Guy, I'm a healthy, normal
woman, no different than the average. I'm not much different than the
average male when it comes to stamina, fortitude, and will. Look,
Guy, it's all right for other women?"
Guy's blank face told Joan that she had scored a hit.
"But you think it not all right for a friend of yours? That's stuffy,
ridiculous, and hypocritical. Rot, Guy. After all, what's good for the
patrol marshal should be good enough for the girl that pinned on his
insignia."
"Hm-m-m, I suppose you're right."
"I am right. After all, in order to do any limb-grafting, the free limb
must be fresh. A corpse will not keep too long, Guy. Autointoxication
sets in and kills the cells, and then the limb is useless for grafting.
The same is true for eyes, ears, and anything that can be grafted. All
right," she snapped, "it's ghoulish to take a leg from a corpse and
graft it on to a man who is alive but with a shattered thigh. It's
inhuman? Not at all. Of what good to the dead is their lifeless body?"
"O.K., Joan, I didn't mean to sound sanctimonious."
"All right. It's pretty ghastly sometimes, but I think it's worth it all the
way."
"I'm sorry, Joan."
"Well, consider me good enough to be where the trouble is," she said
with a shy smile.
"Look, Senior Aide Forbes, you are as fine an officer and gentleman
as I have ever seen, even though it did take an Act of Terran
Congress to make a gentleman out of you. You have my undying
admiration."
"You sound sincere," she said.
"I am sincere. Some day some bird will come along that's good
enough for you."
Joan's peculiar glance was lost on Guy. "When he does," she said in
a strained voice, "I'll follow him to the very end of the Solar System!"
She looked at him seriously, and then turned and left. "I'll bet she will
at that," he said to himself, and then forgot her in the maze of figures
on his broad desk. After all, he had an important decision to make,
and a conference to attend within the next hour.
"Gentlemen, we'll by-pass One and Two, and hit Mephisto direct. I
think we'll fox 'em that way, they'll be certain that we wouldn't leave a
main base behind us, much less two bases. But we will, and by doing
that we'll take the system!"
"And when?"
"As soon as we can mobilize. Hamilton, how soon is that?"
"Do you mean that?" asked Hamilton uncertainly. The conference
laughed at his deep swallow. "All right. Three hours!"
"It's done, then! Come on, fellows. This is IT!"

The grand assembled fleet lifted from Three and headed for the
planet direct. With numbers enough to invade a planet, they swarmed
in and were met by planet-mounted beams that took a terrible toll with
their extra power. They hit Mephisto in one spot, and literally sterilized
the planet for a hundred square miles. The weight of their numbers
would have broken into any planet, no matter how armed. Invading
was not difficult; keeping the break and spreading it to cover the
planet was the difficult job. No defense can be set up against an