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    Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
    Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
    Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
    Audiobook15 hours

    Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage

    Written by Stephanie Coontz

    Narrated by Callie Beaulieu

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Just when the clamor over "traditional" marriage couldn't get any louder, along comes this groundbreaking book to ask, "What tradition?" In Marriage, a History, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes listeners from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the torments of Victorian lovers 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 when marriage moved into the emotional sphere in the nineteenth century, she argues, that it suffered as an institution just as it began to thrive as a personal relationship. This enlightening and hugely entertaining book brings intelligence, perspective, and wit to today's marital debate.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 21, 2016
    ISBN9781515976400
    Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage

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    Reviews for Marriage, a History

    4/5

    132 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A comprehensive overview of historical marriage. Fascinating. Lots of new information for me but I kept thinking, Oh, THAT'S how we got here. Reader is a little slow.
    • 5/5
      This was a remarkably journey through the history and purpose of marriage, exploring the different trends, cultures and principles connected to the institution of marriage around the world. It was also very interesting to see how the concept of marriage and the roles of men and women have evolved, and with all of the changes, it is still great to see that marriage is still something sacred. A great listen!
    • 5/5
      Give this book a read. It is amazing. And takes you all the way back and shows how much you really didn't know about marriage and how it came to be
    • 5/5
      The start is more interesting than the end, but the first part is worth it, a international history of what marriage was and wasn’t at different times in different cultures.

      The second half is all western focused, but still kinda interesting
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsLove has only been a precursor to marriage the past couple of hundred years or so. Before that, marriage was mostly for financial or political reasons. Love may or may not have come later. So what many call “traditional marriage” is not really as “traditional” as some might have one believe. What’s often seen as traditional or ideal was really only what marriage was (seen as) in the 1950s for just over a decade. Of course, what went on behind closed doors is not exactly what “Ozzie and Harriet” would have us all believe, either. The author is a family studies professor. The book takes a look at the history of marriage during different times and cultures in history (though the focus, certainly for modern marriages, is on the Western world). I found this quite interesting. The book has an extensive “Notes” section at the end for those of us who also like to peruse through it for extra tidbits of information. As someone who has never been married, for some reason, I added this to my tbr ages ago!
    • 2/5
      ok, i read approximately 15% of this book and got the jist: marriages throughout cultures and history have common threads, but all are actually very different from each other, and our modern perception of marriage for love is incredibly new. I just didn''t really care for her style of writing, which was to essentially provide many short examples of different types of marriages in a row, so i forgot what the overarching topic of the section even was. Essentially, the first 40 pages of this book was a list of examples of marriage in different cultures, designed to make the reader say "man, that's crazy!!!!" But it got old pretty quickly. Regarding books on the topic of marriage, I'd definitely recommend Elizabeth Gilbert's "Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage" to get a broad introduction to the history of western marriage, grounded in a personal point of view.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book. Very interesting. Apparently, every generation, for, like, ever, has thought that the generation before it "got marriage right." Pretty funny.
    • 5/5
      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!
    • 3/5
      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.