Untying the Knot

Modern-day North American society assumes that, until recently, marriage has been a constant, unwavering tradition. Some believe that skyrocketing divorce rates, common-law and single-parent families, and gay marriage, among a litany of changes, have altered us irrevocably by damaging the tradition of marriage: they wax nostalgic over the vanished virtues of a supposedly time-honoured family order, and lament the cracks in our societal foundations. In A History of Marriage, historian and writer Elizabeth Abbott conjures these fears:

Our collective failure to remain married—or to marry in the first place—has become the subject of religious sermonizing, scholarly study, and politicized commentary. . . We beat our breasts and hurl recriminations at the usual suspects: The ease of divorce! Working women and feminism! Abortion and the pill! Artificial insemination, which allows lesbians and single women to do without...