This seems like a serious treatment of the topic, with fully 98 pages of notes and an 18-page index. The back jacket provides complimentary blurbs from close to a dozen scholars and cultural authorities. With an apparatus like that, I was expecting to be impressed, and for the first few chapters I was. However, as Coontz moved into the early twentieth century (a period I have more than passing familiarity with), I realized exactly how superficial and selective her argument is. Although she provides a breathtaking range of sources and quotations, her analysis of changing gender roles post-WWI is suspect, making me wonder about the solidity of the discussion leading up to it. Beyond her relentless American bias, she ignores many significant social facts — for instance, the social impact of the World War One itself and the flu pandemic of the late 1910s. As she moves into the post-war period, her analysis becomes even more glib, as if the facts of our culture are so self-evident as to need no explanation (if that were true, how could she justify writing her book in the first place?). Coontz's final conclusion — that the male breadwinner marriage of the 1950s and early 1960s was a carefully constructed historical aberration unlikely to be seen again in our culture of increasing individualism — is not groundbreaking, and her placid call for patience while the concept of marriage continues to sort itself out feels disappointingly flat after some 300 pages of build-up. I did like her busting of several common marriage myths regularly trotted out by mass media to drive political and economic agendas (for instance, that single women over 35 are more likely to be killed by terrorists than married — obviously untrue, and not because the women are so panicked that they'll marry any man who offers a ring). But in the end I was not impressed by this book.

As the title says this book explores the long history of marriage. Even though it's quite a thick book it is very easy to read. Every time I picked it up I was drawn in and found it hard to put it back down. Each chapter deals with a different time period and the marriage customs thereof. The author has a wonderful way with words and makes her historical observations very accessible and lively. She also dispels some common marriage myths such as the notion that marriage first developed because women needed a provider and protection.
Definitely a worthwhile read! ( )

I had been quite excited to read this book--a fascinating topic, glowing reviews, a promising first chapter. I have to admit that I finished feeling more than a little disappointed. Coontz is tackling an amazingly large idea--the history of marriage--and perhaps one that is too large to pursue to the depth that a reader would want. Though filled with interesting tidbits of trivia, and covering the major societal changes, I was struck more by what was left out than what was included. The text is almost entirely Western-centric, with discussion of Asian, African, and Native American cultures limited mostly to brief mentions in the endnotes. In a text meant to challenge the concept of a "traditional marriage," I expected much more discussion of homosexual relationships throughout history, and was shocked that the topic was scarcely mentioned until the final few chapters.

This is not to say that the book is without merit. Coontz has a light, approachable writing style that the non-historian will enjoy reading, and her endnotes are thorough enough for the reader looking for more depth. ( )

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