The Future of Marriage

[Thanks to Maggie Gallagher for this:]

Can Marriage Survive?
CATO UNBOUND
January 14-21, 2008

Marriage isn't what it used to be. Though divorce has declined from its peak, marriage certainly is no longer considered an unbreakable covenant. For millions of cohabiting couples, marriage seems optional, or distant. With gay and lesbian couples demanding their own nuptials, marriage isn't even just for straight people anymore. Family is a crucial building block of a decent society, but marriage has always been at the center of family formation. If marriage-as-we-know-it is on the rocks, can the family, and society, be far behind?

Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage kicks off this month with a learned lead essay ["The Future of Marriage"]. Reacting to Coontz, we've lined up the Manhattan Institute's Kay Hymowitz ["The Marriage Gap"], author of Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age; economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania ["Marriage and the Market"]; and Norval Glenn ["Against Family Fatalism"], professor of sociology at the University of Texas.

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See the essays on the web.