It is based on research that Gutman conducted over the course of the decade since the Moynihan Report, which revived the "tangle of pathology" thesis; the claim that black families in the US were incapable of functioning in a healthy way, a rationale previously rejected by critics as racist.

Gutman says that if slavery destroyed the family as white politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan claimed, then family structure statistics should have been worse closer to the time of slavery.

He then lays out statistics showing that black families actually had higher legitimacy rates than whites for the first several decades after the end of the Civil War, along with comparable success in various other metrics.

[3] Gutman concludes that black families, rather than having been irretrievably destroyed by slavery, showed great power and resilience, pulling together as slavery ended, with more two-parent households and couples who stayed together longer.

[5] All the way through 1925, black families grew stronger and more successful, increasing in wealth.