Doing the Best I Can

Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as "deadbeat dads." Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly - without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the demise of the couple's romance. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life, where ties between parents are peripheral and the father-child bond is central. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than one hundred fathers make real the significant obstacles that low-income men face at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships to decision-making dilemmas at conception, the often celebratory moment of birth, the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.