The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today

ISBN-13: 9780307386380 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 288 str.

Andrew J. Cherlin

Opis

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."