Despite a decade of sociological research documenting that black fathers' level of engagement with their children is equal to or higher than average, stereotypes of black men as "deadbeat dads" still shape popular perceptions and scholarly discourse. In Fathering from the Margins, the sociologist Aasha M. Abdill draws on four years of fieldwork in low-income, predominantly black Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to dispel these destructive assumptions. She considers the obstacles faced--and the strategies used--by black men with children.

Abdill presents qualitative and quantitative...