Synopses & Reviews
As divorce rates in the United States reach alarming levels, the institution of marriage receives more and more criticism as an unrealistic endeavor. However, the contributors to this volume view marriage as a vital social institution, not merely one kind of intimate relationship. They argue for stronger support through legal and policy reform in order to strengthen for the benefit of individuals, communities, and the nation. The contributors address hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage, effects of divorce on children, and the role of fathers in addition to issues such as the permanence of marriage, covenant marriage, and the role of religion in marriage. This work brings together the work of respected legal scholars and social scientists, who articulate why we should care about strengthening the institution of marriage, what we can do, and what challenges we face.
Despite dramatic social change, marriage remains a critical social institution that promotes individual, family and community well being. The contributors to this book believe that marriage deserves our best efforts to revitalize it instead of a conscious agenda of benign neglect. Here, assembled in one place, is a clear pro-marriage research and policy agenda aimed at revitalizing this insitution based on principles of the best interests of children, husbands and wives, and society at large. Contributors from both the social sciences and legal studies illuminate critical issues from a variety of important perspectives, providing a comprehensive and respectful treatment of a timely and often divisive subject.
Review
...scholarly capital stored in this edited volume does allow for further questioning about the minding of all social institutions, not just those who embrace the possible relational forms of contemporary marriage and family.Journal of Marriage and Family
Synopsis
As divorce rates in the United States reach alarming levels, the institution of marriage receives more and more criticism as an unrealistic endeavor. However, the contributors to this volume view marriage as a vital social institution, not merely one kind of intimate relationship. They argue for stronger support through legal and policy reform in order to strengthen for the benefit of individuals, communities, and the nation. The contributors address hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage, effects of divorce on children, and the role of fathers in addition to issues such as the permanence of marriage, covenant marriage, and the role of religion in marriage. This work brings together the work of respected legal scholars and social scientists, who articulate why we should care about strengthening the institution of marriage, what we can do, and what challenges we face. Despite dramatic social change, marriage remains a critical social institution that promotes individual, family and community well being. The contributors to this book believe that marriage deserves our best efforts to revitalize it instead of a conscious agenda of benign neglect. Here, assembled in one place, is a clear "pro-marriage" research and policy agenda aimed at revitalizing this insitution based on principles of the best interests of children, husbands and wives, and society at large. Contributors from both the social sciences and legal studies illuminate critical issues from a variety of important perspectives, providing a comprehensive and respectful treatment of a timely and often divisive subject.
Synopsis
Offers policy recommendations, research agendas, and educational and legal directives aimed at strengthening marriage as an institution.
About the Author
DAVID ORGON COOLIDGE is the Director of the Marriage Law Project in Washington, D.C. He is licensed to practice law, and from 1983 to 1991 he worked on the State and Federal level for Justice Fellowship, advocating alternatives to incarceration and restitution to victims of crime.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Marriage Myths and Revitalizing Marriage by Linda J. Waite
Introduction: Revitalizing the Institution of Marriage for the Twenty-first Century by Alan J. Hawkins
The Social Costs of De-Institutionalizing Marriage by Steven L. Nock
Community Involvement and Its Limits in Marriage and Families by Margaret Brinig
The Language of Health vs. the Language of Religion: Competing Models of Marriage for the Twenty-first Century by Don Browning
A Plea for Greater Concern about the Quality of Marital Matching by Norval Glenn
Why Covenant Marriage May Prove Effective as a Response to the Culture of Divorce by Katherine Spaht
Good Incentives Lead to Good Marriages by Allen Parkman
Strengthening Couples and Marriage in Low-Income Communities by Theodora Ooms
Promoting Marriages as a Means to Promoting Fatherhood by Wade Horn
Reflections on the Nature of Marriage by Brian Bix
Adoption by Unmarried Cohabitants, Same-Sex Couples, and Single Parents in Europe by Rainer Frank
Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Family: Risk or Revival? by Ruth Deech
Marriages and Belonging: Reflections on Baker v. Vermont by David Coolidge
Marriage Policy and the Methodology of Research on Homosexual Parenting by Robert Lerner and Althea K. Nagai
Institutionalizing Marriage Reforms Through Federalism by Lynn D. Wardle
Fixing the Family: Legal Acts and Cultural Admonitions by Carl Schneider
The Limits of the Law and Raising Up a Sentiment for Marriage by Laurence Nolan
A Marriage Research Agenda for the Twenty-first Century: Ten Critical Questions by David Popenoe
Index