and Time. Kerry Daly. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 1996. 200 pp. Softcover ISBN 08039-7341-1 $21.95. I'm writing this review during the semester break in December (what better get things done that you want to, but that don't really count for promotion or merit increase). During the break my wife and I went Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney's romantic comedy, One Fine Day. In the movie, two highly motivated and occupationally successful single parents try manage their careers, spend quality with their children, and start romance. I came out of the show exhausted from watching them and not really sure that in real life romances budded so naturally and quickly, children were so easily contented, and employment so effectively handled. As Kerry Daly notes, Families live in frenzied temporal climate (p. 37). Most of us never seem have enough and want find more for families, work, relationships, and leisure, but we tend see time, as Daly reminds us, like gravity; it is just something that is. Daly's goal in and Time is to allow percolate the surface . . . in order . . . understand the degree which it is pervasive in the experiential world of (p. 3). He endeavors develop theory about families and that focuses on the meanings, structures, and politics of family time (p. 3). To this end, Daly seeks demonstrate that time, instead of simply being taken-for-granted reality, is highly diverse, socially constructed concept. Daly begins by describing the various metaphors used in discussing time, starting with the traditional models of circular and linear time. He goes on discuss economic metaphors, dialectic metaphors, and acceleration metaphors used with time. Each chapter then explores how families experience these myriad forms of time. Daly extensively reviews the empirical literature as well as the theoretical and philosophical literature in each chapter. Chapters 24 look at the patterns of in family life, including the relationship between family and historical time, how is socially constructed, and the ideology of family time. Daly then examines the politics of family in Chapters 5-8. This includes discussions of the properties of that subject it control, the dynamics of control between families and the institutions and environments surrounding them, the gender dynamics of family time, and generational issues in the control of family time. Lastly, in Chapter 9, Daly presents his integrated theory of family with both practice and research implications. Daly views theory as meaning structure, a composite of ideas and explanations that provide insight into the dynamics, dimensions, and relationships of particular phenomenon (p. xv). Theory is an ever-changing dynamic rooted in who we are as scientists, in empirical evidence, and in the culture we are in and the experiences we have. Thus, his theory does not have boxes and arrows and levels of abstraction clearly articulated. As such, the theory is free go where it may and change as it needs to, but it is consequently difficult conceptualize as whole. …