|
|
Article: Love story?(Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- July 18, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage, by Stephanie Coontz (Viking, 400 pp., $25.95)
THE television spirits of Harriet Nelson and June Cleaver haunt historian Stephanie Coontz. Along with Ozzie and Ricky, Ward, Wally, and the Beaver, these black-and-white specters from the 1950s materialize as whole chapters in her books. Like the 15 angry feminist coauthors of the recent volume Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, Coontz sees "the 1950s Family" as the lodestone of American social history and the early sitcom housewives as bearers of an awesome, culture-shaping power.
The big news ...