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  • Marriage, a History

  • How Love Conquered Marriage
  • Written by: Stephanie Coontz
  • Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
  • Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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Marriage, a History

Written by: Stephanie Coontz
Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
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Publisher's Summary

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 19th 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.

©2005 SJ Coontz Company (P)2016 Tantor
Gender Studies Sociology World
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Profile Image for Ricardo A Morales

almost perfect

Without question one of the greatest books to be written in modern times as it gives a very detailed account of the history of marriage specifically the Western world and why things are the way they are today

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Meags W

Good Book, Awful Robot Recording

I actually first read this book on paper and wanted to listen to it to absorb it again. Coontz is a thorough researcher and writer and handles the complexity of the subject in a way the average reader can understand. For that reason it's unfortunate that the reading/ recording of this book is almost unlistenable. I don't think it was actually read, it sounds like a bot. Likely a program complied pre-recorded words by the narrator to form the sentences, which results in some uncommon words being pronounced phonetically (and incorrectly). There's no spoken emphasis where it should be so it makes for a very dry listen and is a disservice to the actual text. It's actual speed is also painstakingly slow so I speed it up to x1.25.

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