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Scholars and policy advocates have reached a general consensus that there is a crisis in caregiving in the United States; however, they debate where to lay the blame. Conservatives have blamed ordinary women, assuming that their personal life choices have led them to abandon their sacred role as keepers of the home (Blankenhorn, 1995;Popenoe, 1992). Liberals have blamed the failure of the welfare state to accommodate the changing needs of families and their dependents (cf. Dizard & Gadlin, 1990;Ellwood, 1988;Folbre, 2001;Jencks, 1997). Feminists across the political spectrum have blamed men, the workplace, and various social policies. Our purpose, however, is to refocus the debate on the crisis in care to encompass the broader needs of families as a whole. The articles in these two special issues empirically illustrate the complex ways in which individual caregivers, families, and other social institutions attempt, and often fail, to meet a broad array of care needs. We have selected these articles to enlarge the dialogue concerning how we define both caregiving and dependency within family life.Over the past century, families have adapted to changing economic and social circumstances. Throughout these macro-level shifts, families have consistently been assigned primary responsibility for dependents. 1 For ex-703 Editors' Note: The editors have listed their names alphabetically. All contributed equally to the selection of articles and to the writing of this introduction.

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