The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today
Andrew J. Cherlin$17.85
$21.00
In a landmark book that's "intriguing [and] provocative" and presents "an original thesis [to explain] this peculiar paradox--we idealize marriage and yet we're so bad at it" (The New York Times).
Andrew J. Cherlin's three decades of study have shown him that marriage in America is a social and political battlefield in a way that it isn't in other developed countries. Americans marry and divorce more often and have more live-in partners than Europeans, and gay Americans have more interest in legalizing same-sex marriage. The difference comes from Americans' embrace of two contradictory cultural ideals: marriage, a formal commitment to share one's life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal choice and self-development. Religion and law in America reinforce both of these behavioral poles, fueling turmoil in our family life and heated debate in our public life. Cherlin's incisive diagnosis is an important contribution to the debate and points the way to slowing down the partnership merry-go-round.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 04/06/2010
ISBN: 9780307386380
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.68w x 0.87d
Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 04/25/2010 pg. 24
Andrew J. Cherlin's three decades of study have shown him that marriage in America is a social and political battlefield in a way that it isn't in other developed countries. Americans marry and divorce more often and have more live-in partners than Europeans, and gay Americans have more interest in legalizing same-sex marriage. The difference comes from Americans' embrace of two contradictory cultural ideals: marriage, a formal commitment to share one's life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal choice and self-development. Religion and law in America reinforce both of these behavioral poles, fueling turmoil in our family life and heated debate in our public life. Cherlin's incisive diagnosis is an important contribution to the debate and points the way to slowing down the partnership merry-go-round.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 04/06/2010
ISBN: 9780307386380
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.68w x 0.87d
Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 04/25/2010 pg. 24