I am pleased to see an author take on the Herculean task of writing about the history and progression of custody. Overall, I believe Mason did a fairly good job of collecting historical facts, assessing trends, regarding patterns and their outliers, and cultivating the amalgam into a fairly well-rounded study. It was frustrating, however, to encounter multiple instances of unsupported opinion stated as fact. In addition, this work ignores the contemporary elephant in the room: the widespread use of pseudo-scientific theories to gain leverage in custody hearings, and the commiserate degree to which the integration of social sciences into the arena of family law has led to the financial destruction of families required to fund its intrusion. Mason hints at the degree to which family court jurisprudence is a socially driven construct, but there is so much more ground to cover. Finally, I would like to have seen the author tackle family court's greatest failing: the nearly absolute lack of accountability towards the citizens it purports to serve in tandem with the wholesale lack of regulation from the judicial gatekeepers entrusted with monitoring its behavior. Readers interested in contemporary family court phenomenon would be better directed to read Dr. Hannah's "Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody" (2010).
