Flutterby™! : Marriage, a history

Hmmm... looks interesting: Paige Wiser reviews Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage.

For much of history, in fact, love had nothing to do with marriage. That's why marriage worked. Marriages were about politics or economics. Arranging a child's marriage was the equivalent of today's setting up a college fund.

Love? As recently as the late 17th century, one gentleman noted that a certain woman "was more fond of her husband perhaps than the Politeness of the day allows."

"If we can learn anything from the past," writes Coontz, "it is how few precedents are now relevant in the changed marital landscape in which we operate today."