Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage

Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage (Stephanie Coontz, 2006)

How I stumbled upon it: I bought this book in a bookshop in Paris YEARS ago and have been hauling it from apartment to apartment until I recently finished!

What it's about: As the title indicates, this one is about the history of marriage. While most of us have a concept of marriage from the 1950s, (a man and a woman marrying for love with the wife staying home to take on a role as homemaker), that is definitely not how it has always been. Coontz takes the reader from ancient times to present day - examining how the role and function of marriage has evolved.

What I thought: I have never thought too much about the history of marriage beyond the last 100 years and it was so interesting! Coontz does a good job of explaining how different things were in the past (ex: the practice of taking lovers outside of marriage was once the norm). I had a good time because she kept up the pace with the writing (especially in the second half) - moving quickly between generations and concepts so that a historical narrative was easy to follow. It’s a good read if you’re curious about history + sociology but don’t know what topic to begin with!

You can get it here.