Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage(ISBN=9780143036678)

　　Marriage has never been more fragile. But the same things that have made it so have also made a good marriage more fulfilling than ever before. In this enlightening and hugely entertaining book, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the sexual torments of Victorian couples 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 only 200 years ago that marriage began to be about love and emotional commitment, and since then the very things that have strengthened marriage as a personal relationship have steadily weakened it as a social institution. Marriage, A History brings intelligence, wit, and some badly needed perspective to today's marital debates and dilemmas.

　　Stephanie Coontz is director of research and public education at the Council on Contemporary Families and teaches history and family studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She is the author of The Way We Never Were: AmericanFamilies and the Nostalgia Trap.