Marriage has never been more fragile. But the same things that have made it so have also made a good marriage more fulfilling than ever before. In this enlightening and hugely entertaining book, historian and marriage expert Stephanie Coontz takes readers from the marital intrigues of ancient Babylon to the sexual torments of Victorian couples 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 only 200 years ago that marriage began to be about love and emotional commitment, and since then the very things that have strengthened marriage as a personal relationship have steadily weakened it as a social institution. Marriage, A History brings intelligence, wit, and some badly needed perspective to today's marital debates and dilemmas.

斯蒂芬妮·庫茨，當代傢庭委員會的研究與公共教育主管，在華盛頓州奧林匹亞市的長青州立大學教授曆史及從事傢庭問題研究。她的時聞主要在夏威夷的馬卡哈與華盛頓度過。庫茨是獲奬作品《我們從未走過的路：美國傢庭與懷舊陷阱》（The Way We Never Were：American Famities and the Nostalgia Trap）的作者，她還撰寫過大量關於婚姻和傢庭問題的文章，發錶在許多國傢級報刊上，包括《紐約時報》、《華爾街雜誌》、《華盛頓郵報》、《哈珀斯雜誌》、《芝加哥論壇報》、《時尚》、《婚姻與傢庭雜誌》及《傢庭治療雜誌》。她的作品被翻譯成瞭日語、德語、法語和西班牙語。