I’ve finished Marriage: a History, and no doubt it will inform my thinking and writing for some time to come. For now, I want to give you an extended quote from the conclusion.
The historical transformation in marriage over the ages has created a… paradox for society as a whole. Marriage has become more joyful, more loving, and more satisfying for many couples than ever before in history. At the same time it has become optional and more brittle. These two strands of change cannot be disentangled.

After all of the comments from last week’s Bloggy Giveaways, I could get use to all the voices around here. I hoping a few of you will come back and leave a comment here.
To entice you, I’m going to offer up a book. I mentioned that I’ve been reading Marriage: a History, and it has been fascinating. So, I’m going to buy one of you a copy. All you have to do is take my challenge.
The challenge: Define marriage.
That’s it. The rules:

The contest is open all week. Leave your definition as a comment by 11:59 PM EDT on Saturday, May …read more

I came across a book that looks quite interesting, Marriage, a History, by Stephanie Coontz. This is from the book jacket:
Marriage today is held up as a blissful haven of love and friendship, sex and stability. We long for the gold standard, the traditional marriage, but marriage turns out to have a checkered past. This real look at what people think of as “traditional” finally explains why so many people are so anxious about marriage.
In this groundbreaking book, award-winning historian Stephanie Coontz takes us on journey from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the sexual torments of Victorian lovers …read more