Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered MarriageJust when the clamor over "traditional" marriage couldn’t get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, "What tradition?" In Marriage, a History, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the torments of Victorian lovers to demonstrate how recent the idea of marrying for love is—and how absurd it would have seemed to most of our ancestors. It was when marriage moved into the emotional sphere in the nineteenth century, she argues, that it suffered as an institution just as it began to thrive as a personal relationship. This enlightening and hugely entertaining book brings intelligence, perspective, and wit to today’s marital debate. |
Contents
Soap Operas of the Ancient World | |
The Marital Legacy of the Classical World | |
Aristocratic Marriages | |
Marriage Among the Common | |
Western European Marriage | |
Beneath the Surface of Victorian | |
From | |
Marriage in the Great | |
The Long Decade of Traditional | |
Part Four Courting Disaster? The Collapse of Universal | |
The Transformation of Marriage at the | |
How the Transformation of Marriage | |
Conclusion | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accepted allowed American Ancient argued authority became become began believed better birth breadwinner called Cambridge changes chap child choice Church claimed classes common couples court created Culture daughter divorce domestic early economic England equality established Europe European expectations father female force France Gender girl groups History household Human husband idea ideal increased individuals inheritance institution Italy John Journal king labor late later less lives London longer male marital marriage married mate Medieval Middle moral mothers needed never nineteenth century North once Oxford parents past percent political practice produce rates relationship Research roles Roman rules sexual share single social societies Studies thousand took traditional turned United University Press unmarried Western wife wives woman women World wrote York young