Praise for Fatherless Sons "Research shows that most men now are better fathers than their own fathers were to them. A generation of men are 'making it up,' giving to their children more than they received. No one describes the poignancy--and hope--of contemporary fatherhood better than Jonathan Diamond's heartfelt and insightful new book. For every man who had a father--and who wants to be one." --Terrence Real, author of I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression and How Can I Get Through to You?: Closing the Intimacy Gap Between Men and Women "Diamond's moving account of his relationship with his father is a nuanced exploration of mourning and its aftermath." --Publishers Weekly "This is a powerful and beautiful book, written with warmth, humor, and generosity of spirit. Fatherless Sons guides us through the complex journey of grief, helping to transform pain and anguish into hope and healing." --Dr. Dusty Miller, author of Your Surviving Spirit and Women Who Hurt Themselves

Fatherless Sons is a poignant collection of stories told by a group of men who grew up without fathers in their lives. They all have a different story, but the theme is the same-a boy without a father. You will learn how each of these men, who were hurt badly by the absence of fathers in their lives, learned to grow into the men they are today. As their stories are all different, so are the outcomes. Some of them were successful and some were not. The moral of this story is that no child should ever be deprived of having both parents in his/her life. But both parents have to be the best parent they can be to their children. Every child deserves the best. Demetrius Zeigler, the composer of this book, is a fatherless son himself. Through his desire to bring his story to others in the same situation, he has found a way to forgive his own father for not being there in his life, and he has realized that the people who remained there for him are truly the people who are worth his love and gratitude - or they made his fatherless life complete!

Drawing from culture, stories, and his own personal experience, John Sowers presents the desperate reality of fatherlessness in his generation. Fatherless Generation is a hard-hitting, descriptive look at this issue, showing how awareness, compassion, and mentoring are the keys to writing new stories of hope.

Learning to become a man without a man to show him how." This is the life story of Andre Harrison, pastor, youth advocate and a father of three boys. Millions of children in the world today are growing up without the active presence of a father. Whether it is due to his demanding work schedule, his criminal behavior or his own cowardice, he is absent from the home. Studies have shown that fatherlessness is an epidemic that affects the social and psychological development of children, most particularly male children. In this book, Harrison poses the question: When a young man is raised without a man, how will he learn to become a man? Written from a refreshing, first-person perspective, From a Fatherless Father to his Sons is more than a memoir of Harrison's struggle to achieve manhood for himself in the face of such odds, it is a how-to "manual for the fatherless." In it, are life lessons about faith, sex, integrity and many other nuggets of wisdom that all boys should know, but - sadly - most fatherless boys don't. Harrison offers readers practical steps for becoming a man even in the absence of one. Whether you are a young man, single mom or a father trying to rebuild a relationship with your son this book will be a help to you.

A compelling and controversial exploration of absentee fathers and their impact on the nation.

One man shares his story of growing up fatherless, the lessons it taught him, and how sons and parents can combat its side effects. Searching for Dad steps inside the mind, heart, and soul of a boy without a father. Recognizing the power of the emotional and psychological side effects of growing up fatherless will help absentee fathers, single mothers, and sons who survived a fatherless childhood understand and cope. Byron Ricks shares his story about the challenges he faced, the lessons he learned, and the man he became. He writes for fathers who do not realize the full impact their absence can have, for mothers wanting to do the best for their sons but are not sure what that is, and for men who feel empty and unattached and are not sure why. Ultimately, Searching for Dad is a book of hope, filled with illustrations about nine side effects and how fathers, mothers, and sons can forestall, minimize and even reverse them. Growing up fatherless may be the condition; healing is the possibility.

The impact of absent fathers on sons in the black community has been a subject for cultural critics and sociologists who often deal in anonymous data. Yet many of those sons have themselves addressed the issue in autobiographical works that form the core of African American literature. A Fatherless Child examines the impact of fatherlessness on racial and gender identity formation as seen in black men’s autobiographies and in other constructions of black fatherhood in fiction. Through these works, Tara T. Green investigates what comes of abandonment by a father and loss of a role model by probing a son’s understanding of his father’s struggles to define himself and the role of community in forming the son’s quest for self-definition in his father’s absence. Closely examining four works—Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father—Green portrays the intersecting experiences of generations of black men during the twentieth century both before and after the Civil Rights movement. These four men recall feeling the pressure and responsibility of caring for their mothers, resisting public displays of care, and desiring a loving, noncontentious relationship with their fathers. Feeling vulnerable to forces they may have identified as detrimental to their status as black men, they use autobiography as a tool for healing, a way to confront that vulnerability and to claim a lost power associated with their lost fathers. Through her analysis, Green emphasizes the role of community as a father-substitute in producing successful black men, the impact of fatherlessness on self-perceptions and relationships with women, and black men’s engagement with healing the pain of abandonment. She also looks at why these four men visited Africa to reclaim a cultural history and identity, showing how each developed a clearer understanding of himself as an American man of African descent. A Fatherless Child conveys important lessons relevant to current debates regarding the status of African American families in the twenty-first century. By showing us four black men of different eras, Green asks readers to consider how much any child can heal from fatherlessness to construct a positive self-image—and shows that, contrary to popular perceptions, fatherlessness need not lead to certain failure.