Overview

Across the developed world, fewer and fewer people are becoming parents, and many see themselves as never doing so. In waiting for the right partner, the right job, the right house – the right circumstances – we close off the possibility altogether. And what’s more, we’re told that maybe we shouldn’t have children. Faced with climate collapse and political crisis, perhaps our children’s lives won’t be worth living. Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman find a way out of our inertia, building an optimistic case for human life. A life worth living is any life, as a parent or not, where we make and live for our genuine commitments. What Are Children For? is a call to take the decision of parenthood seriously, and take it into our own hands.

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9780861549481

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Reviews

'A lucid and sophisticated treatment of a question we all share a stake in: Ought there be future generations? Carving out a conversation about parenthood and the future that’s undisturbed by the warping effects of the culture wars, the book ably addresses contemporary challenges to parenthood – both practical and political – while developing its own optimistic case for human life.'―Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic 'In their widely researched and patiently argued book, Berg and Wiseman show how competing ideas about freedom, happiness, love, dignity, and justice attach to the increasingly ambivalent acts of having and raising children. What Are Children For? models the curiosity and the scepticism we need to imagine a collective future in dark times.'―Merve Emre, The New Yorker 'A book not merely about parents and their choices, but about the full meaning of adulthood today. Berg and Wiseman address, with triumphant patience, rigour and generosity, this subject which we are constantly warned can’t be contained by a book.'—Lillian Fishman, author of Acts of Service 'Berg and Wiseman offer some rare hopefulness and their words will likely be of reassurance to those who want to have children.' TLS 'Fascinating... Reading their discussions of motherhood literature and climate change fiction, and their quiet probing of our youth-obsessed, shallow existence, I found myself astonished by the lucidity of their insights. We have little notion of the good life, with all the old social certainties dead. We don’t know whether to have children, or when, or why – and if Rachel Wiseman and Anastasia Berg don’t give answers, they prove that the current answers fall short. This is what the philosophers are for: to make us think more honestly about the purpose of living life, and of giving it.' —New Statesman 'By far the most honest, unsentimental, unpredictable, and rigorously thoughtful exploration of parenting that I have ever read. Berg and Wiseman’s debut is a much-needed and impressively original inquiry into a topic that is almost always treated in deadeningly stale terms.'―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post 'An incisive look at a monumental life choice.'―Publishers Weekly 'This is a brave, lucid book, and Berg and Wiseman deserve great credit for their readiness to ask tough questions.'―Kirkus Reviews  

'A lucid and sophisticated treatment of a question we all share a stake in: Ought there be future generations? Carving out a conversation about parenthood and the future that’s undisturbed by the warping effects of the culture wars, the book ably addresses contemporary challenges to parenthood – both practical and political – while developing its own optimistic case for human life.'―Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic 'In their widely researched and patiently argued book, Berg and Wiseman show how competing ideas about freedom, happiness, love, dignity, and justice attach to the increasingly ambivalent acts of having and raising children. What Are Children For? models the curiosity and the skepticism we need to imagine a collective future in dark times.'―Merve Emre, The New Yorker 'By far the most honest, unsentimental, unpredictable, and rigorously thoughtful exploration of parenting that I have ever read. Berg and Wiseman’s debut is a much-needed and impressively original inquiry into a topic that is almost always treated in deadeningly stale terms.'―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post

Author Information

Anastasia Berg is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is an editor of The Point, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic, TLS, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Chronicle of Higher Education Review. Rachel Wiseman is the managing editor of The Point. Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, The Point, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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