pt. 1 In search of traditional marriage: the radical idea of marrying for love
The many meanings of marriage
The invention of marriage
pt. 2. The era of political marriage: soap operas of the ancient world
Something borrowed: the marital legacy of the classical world and early Christianity
Playing the bishop, capturing the queen: aristocratic marriages in early medieval Europe
How the other 95 percent wed: marriage among the common folk of the middle ages
Something old, something new: western European marriage at the dawn of the modern age
pt. 3. The love revolution: from yoke mates to soul mates: emergence of the love match and the male provider marriage
"Two birds within one nest": sentimental marriage in nineteenth-century Europe and North America
"A heaving volcano": beneath the surface of Victorian marriage
"The time when mountains move has come": from sentimental to sexual marriage
Making do, then making babies: marriage in the Great Depression and World War II
The era of Ozzie and Harriet: the long decade of "Traditional" marriage
pt. 4. Courting Disaster? The collapse of universal and lifelong marriage: winds of change: marriage in the 1960s and 1970s
The perfect storm: the transformation of marriage at the end of the twentieth century
Uncharted territory: how the transformation of marriage is changing our lives
Conclusion: better or worse? The future of marriage.
