Marriage, a History takes us through the history of marriage and how we have come to see the ideas and views of marriage today. The author, Coontz, begins the book talking about the definitions of marriage and beginning from the beginning of time back in hunter and gatherer societies. She ends the book talking about the twentieth century and how love has gotten to where it is now.
This book covers a huge amount of history with so much in depth detail that it would be hard to summarize thoroughly, but it must be done. The book makes valuable points on why people get married, how marriages are successful or not, the types of marriages, the differences between the sexes, sexuality, family ties, divorce, and the health/medical side of these relationships.
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In the beginning, people married for support, protection, or providing. In hunter gatherer societies, men married many women because with the advance in technology, they were bringing home more meat and hid than one woman could do with. Moving on to the ancient societies, marriage was a way to recruit family/personal ties, make alliances, and establish their legitimacy. Families would send their daughters off to be married with the ruler or a wealthy man. This was in hopes of the king or man to back the woman’s family. Men would also marry women from other places to keep wealth at the top, their legitimacy, and to make an alliance with the woman’s family, especially if they are wealthy and could help the ruler out later on. It was all about establishing and expanding political power. The lower class hoped to have their children marry up the later, but this rarely happened. What they decided to do was to marry for another workhand,