Contact: Dr. Allan Carlson, 815-964-5819, acarlson@profam.org, media@worldcongress.org

ROCKFORD, Ill., Feb. 4, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- CHOICE magazine, the influential journal for academic libraries published by The American Library Association, has recognized Allan Carlson's most recent book, The Natural Family Where It Belongs:  New Agrarian Essays, as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2014.

Dr. Carlson is President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, Editor of its journal The Family in America, and Co-Founder and International Secretary of The World Congress of Families. The book is published by Transaction of New Brunswick, NJ, which Dr. Carlson also serves as Series Editor for Marriage and Family Studies.
 
According to the Editors of CHOICE, the "prestigious list" of volumes receiving this designation "reflects the best in scholarly titles and attracts extraordinary attention from the academic library community." Books awarded "Outstanding Academic Title" status must show: "overall excellence in presentation and scholarship;" "importance relative to other literature in the field;" "distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form;" "originality or uniqueness of treatment;" and "value to undergraduate students." Dr. Carlson's volume is one of only 24 books in the field of Sociology to receive this honor.
 
In The Natural Family Where It Belongs, Allan Carlson argues that agrarianism is alive and well in the twenty-first century, especially as a metaphor for the self-reliant and free natural family. The volume focuses on households where the sexual and the economic merge through marriage and child-bearing and where the family is defined in considerable measure by its material efforts. Dr. Carlson points toward the recreation of a family-centered economy and renewal of the true democracy, resting on autonomous homes, dreamed of by Washington, Adams, and Jefferson.
 
A complete review of the book, appearing in an earlier issue of CHOICE, calls it "a brilliant history and analysis of the most important building blocks of civilization: marriage and family." The review continues: "Throughout the work, Carlson demonstrates the outworn nature of standard political categorizations of 'Left' and 'Right' by perpetually skewering the sacred cows of both. Consequently, the book will generate vitriol from many corners, but that is merely one of many reasons his essays deserve the widest of audiences." It concludes: "In a time obsessed with the possibility of redefining both marriage and family, Carlson's work is simply indispensable. Summing up: Essential."
 
The hardcover edition of The Natural Family Where It Belongs appeared in early 2014. As of February 2015, a new paperback edition is also available. In addition, the volume can be secured as a Google eBook.

For more information, or to schedule an interview, contact Dr. Carlson at (815) 964-5819 or send a query to acarlson@profam.org or media@worldcongress.org.