Book Reviews : Helena Znaniecka Lopata (ed.), Widows: Volume II. North America. London & Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987, 277 pp., £ 38.00 (cloth), £ 16.f0 (paper)
Abstract
Book ReviewsHelena Znaniecka Lopata (ed.), Widows: Volume II. North America. London & Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987, 277 pp., £ 38.00 (cloth), £ 16.f0 (paper) SAGE Publications, Inc.1989DOI: 10.1177/002071528903000113 Carole L. Seyfrit Department of Sociology University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Oshkosh, WI, U.S.A. This edited volume is the second in a set of works on a neglected segment of society: widows. Concentrating on the United States and Canada, it is a nice complement to Volume I which covered the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. The focus of this book, which is divided into three parts, is comparative and includes a range of topics. In addition to Lopata's introductory chapter which focuses on her Chicago studies, the authors of the chapters in Part I discuss widows in "relatively homogeneous populations. " These include widows in an Illinois working class town (Fry and Garvin), in a Florida retirement community (Neale), in urban Nebraska (Anderson), and homeowning widows in a middle class urban area of Ohio (O'Bryant). In addition, Part I includes a chapter on the influence of religion on the well-being of widows and widowers (Beck). Part II focuses on comparisons among specific groups: black wives and widows in four