“Why Love Is the Newest Thing About Marriage”
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Title: Marriage, a History
Author: Stephanie Coontz
Category: Culture & Society, Love, Dating & Relationships
What if marrying for love is the strangest thing humans have ever done? Sam and Sophie open this episode with that question, and it doesn't get less disorienting from there.
The episode walks through Stephanie Coontz's long sweep: marriage as a property and political arrangement in ancient Greece and Rome, the Church's free-consent doctrine as a power move rather than a gift to couples, the medieval kinship bans that aristocrats bought their way around, and the eighteenth-century economic shift that let people earn their own living and finally choose a partner. From there it's companionate marriage, separate spheres, and the twentieth-century detonation of feminism, contraception, and no-fault divorce.
If you've ever wondered why modern marriage feels both more rewarding and more fragile than it's supposed to, this one names the tradeoff. The takeaway: there's no golden age to return to, and divorce may be the price of taking marriage seriously.
Marriage, a History by Stephanie Coontz. For the full written summary, the whole library is at 7minutebooks.com/app — over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction titles you can read or listen to in any language, with infographics on many titles. Unlimited access from $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 lifetime.
Chapters
00:00Love Is A Historical Anomaly00:49Marriage As Property In Greece And Rome01:28The Church's Consent Power Move02:39Wage Labor Makes Marriage A Choice03:15Companionate Marriage And Separate Spheres04:35Why Divorce Is The Price Of Seriousness
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