The State of Marriage in America

Diane Johnson at The New York Review of Books draws on five books to write about the current state of marriage in the U.S. which has the most marriages per capita in the West. “Collective sensibilities see cyclical changes, the bolder flappers of the Twenties retiring into the docile Fifties generation, forward to the experimental Sixties, and on; weddings and birthrates fluctuating according to the mysterious drives of history. Enabled principally (most think) by better education and contraception, the direction for women has been steadily toward more autonomy, self-confidence, skills, and income, while some individuals are caught in the confusion,” she concludes.