Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City

Social commentators as diverse as Bill Cosby, Louis Farrakhan, and Gloria Steinem have lamented the absence of fathers in the lives of inner-city children. In contrast, Edin (public policy & management; Promises I Can Keep) and Nelson (social policy; Every Time I Feel the Spirit), both at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, present a study of unwed urban fathers, without nostalgia, judgment, or irony. Based on 110 interviews conducted in Camden, NJ, and Philadelphia, the book offers an unflinching examination of how these men view children, families, romantic relationships, and the world around them. While the authors highlight patterns, set the interviews against trends, and contrast their subjects with two-dimensional portraits in the media, there is limited explanation or theorizing. Foremost, this is a chronicle of perspectives from "disadvantaged fathers living in a struggling rustbelt metropolis at the turn of the twenty-first century."