American Marriage Research Articles

A Steep Hill to Climb: Reconciling the Expanding Demands of Marriage

Finkel, Hui, Carswell, and Larson make a persuasive and interesting case that modern North American marriages are being asked to carry a considerable burden, satisfying an ever widening set of pers...

Anastasia C. Curwood, Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Pp. 196. Cloth $35.00.

Anastasia C. Curwood, <i>Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars</i>. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Pp. 196. Cloth $35.00.

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars by Anastasia C. Curwood

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars by Anastasia C. Curwood

Intersections of Marriage and Race

Intersections of Marriage and Race Kristin Celello (bio) Fay Botham . Almighty God Created the Races: Christianity, Interracial Marriage, and American Law. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. 288 pp.; ISBN 978-0-8078-3318-6 (cl); 978-1-4696-0727-6 (pb). Anastasia C. Curwood . Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. 216 pp.; ill. ISBN 978-0-8078-3434-3(cl); 978-1-4696-0981-2 (pb). Elizabeth M. Smith-Pryor . Property Rites: The Rhinelander Trial, Passing, and the Protection of Whiteness. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. 408 pp.; ill. ISBN 978-0-8078-3268-4 (cl); 978-0-8078-5939-1 (pb). Exploring the relationship between race and marriage has long been a challenge for historians of the twentieth-century United States, not least because sources have often been difficult to uncover. Yet three compelling new books, Anastasia C. Curwood's Stormy Weather, Elizabeth M. Smith-Pryor's Property Rites, and Fay Botham's Almighty God Created the Races, demonstrate not only the flaws in this excuse—sources, while not always readily apparent, can be found—but also that there is much to be learned about gender roles, racial politics, intimate relationships, religion, and the law by thinking about the intersection of race and marriage. Each of these works individually uses race and marriage to ask very different historiographical questions: What has been lost by the failure of historians, especially those who study marriage, to investigate the personal lives of African Americans? What can an infamous trial involving the breakdown of a possibly interracial marriage tell us about race in the early twentieth-century urban North? What role did religion play in efforts to uphold—and to overturn—bans on interracial marriage in the United States? As a whole, the books serve as an essential reminder that marriage is a lens through which to illuminate new insights about race, and vice versa. Of the three books, Stormy Weather is most explicitly "a history of marriage." Curwood examines not only the expectations that "New Negroes" (members of the African American middle class and those who aspired to middle-class status) in the interwar period had for their unions, but also the difficulties that these men and women faced in defining their roles as [End Page 232-] husbands and wives in the context of ongoing racial discrimination and the unprecedented economic troubles of the Great Depression. In doing so, she seeks to correct two important deficiencies in the existing literature. First, Curwood argues that only by exploring the "inner lives of African Americans" can they emerge as "multifaceted historical actors" (12). Too often, in her point of view, the academic literature reduces complicated—and surely imperfect—black men and women to "units of race" (140). Second, Curwood calls historians to task for failing to recognize that race influenced white marriages as unquestionably as it did African American ones. In making these critiques, she persuasively contends that race should not be absent from the study of marriage, but neither should it be considered the sole defining factor in an individual's personal life and intimate choices. While Curwood acknowledges the challenges in finding primary sources with which to study African American marriage—especially among non-elites—Stormy Weather benefits from her discovery and use of a novel source base: letters exchanged during the tumultuous courtship and marriage of her paternal grandparents, James and Sarah Thomas Curwood. The book is not merely a chronicle of their union, although it is easy to see how an attempt to understand their difficulties influenced Curwood's direction and analysis. Instead, Stormy Weather seeks to use their marriage as a window into the relationships of a generation of African American couples in first half of the twentieth century. In the first half of Stormy Weather, Curwood broadly examines the development of new marriage and gender role ideals among self-styled New Negroes, using a variety of sources including films, magazines, academic studies, and the personal papers of well-known (novelist Jean Toomer) and less well-known (lawyer Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander) men and women. African Americans in the...

Alfred Hitchcock's America

Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Alfred Hitchcock in America 1 1 Hitchcock's American Scapes 18 2 Hitchcock's American Personalities 71 3 Hitchcock and American Values 123 4 Hitchcock and American Social Form 176 5 Hitchcock and the American Marriage 225 Works Cited and Consulted 284 Index 305

American Marriage: A Political Institution

American Marriage: A Political Institution

American Marriage. A Political Institution. By Priscilla Yamin. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2012. 224 pp. $59.95 cloth.

American Marriage. A Political Institution. By Priscilla Yamin. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2012. 224 pp. $59.95 cloth.

Building a “Family-Friendly” Metropolis

This article explores the role normative sexuality played in housing policies in the San Francisco Bay Area after World War II. Beginning in the 1940s, policymakers made it easier for married Americans to acquire mortgages and excluded most people who deviated from sexual norms from the suburban housing market. Their efforts encouraged Americans to wed and pulled many middle-class married couples out of urban centers like San Francisco. During the 1960s, city leaders used federal funds to displace unmarried residents and to make urban areas competitive with the suburbs. Redevelopment, however, never reversed suburban growth, and the uneven nature of this process created two significant outcomes. First, suburbanization concentrated large numbers of unmarried people, including many gay men and lesbians, in places like San Francisco and facilitated the sexual revolution. Second, metropolitan expansion reinforced the notion that heterosexual norms were nearly universal by creating almost exclusive pockets of married people in the newest suburbs.

Gender and the Culture of Heterosexual Marriage in the United States

This theoretical narrative extends Andrew Cherlin's argument about the role of clashing values in high rates of marital disruption in the United States. Cherlin explains challenges to American marriages as deriving from tension between cultural ideals of marriage and individualism. Drawing on social construction and gender theory, we contend that gender differentiation affects both the institution of marriage and married people's personal dissatisfactions. We further suggest that racial/ethnic and class positions are likely to influence how people enact marriage and that accountability to gendered norms intersects with these positions. Unlike dominant cultural messages that signal that wives should accept the negative influence of gender differentiation, we argue that prevention of marital disruption requires critique of socially constructed “his and hers” marriages.

American marriage: a political institution

List of Abbreviations Introduction: as a Political Institution I. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1. The Duties as Well as Privileges of Freedom Chapter 2. What Constitutes a Valid Marriage? II. THE LONG CULTURE WARS Chapter 3. Marriage One of the Basic Civil Rights of Man Chapter 4. Marriage the Foundation of a Successful Society Chapter 5. We're in a Battle for the Soul of the Nation Conclusion: Is There Hope for the American Marriage? Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Disentangling how educational expansion did not increase women's age at union formation in Latin America from 1970 to 2000

One of the most salient features of Latin American marriages over the last few decades is the stable timing of their union formation, despite educational expansion, the postponement of and retreat from marriage, and the increase in non-marital cohabitation. Objective: We examine why educational expansion did not influence the aggregated indicators of women's timing of union formation. Methods: We used recently harmonised international census microdata for eight Latin American countries from the 1970s to the 2000s. Results: The results from a logistic regression analysis show that this apparent stability was produced by contrasting shifts that occurred in various educational groups. In most countries the postponement effect that was expected from educational expansion was offset by earlier union formation (mostly through non-marital cohabitation) among the least educated (and formally largest) groups, whereas highly educated women showed no change.

Pride and Prejudice in Contemporary Marriages: On the Hidden Constraints to Individualisation at the Crossroad of Tradition and Modernity

Pride and Prejudice in Contemporary Marriages: On the Hidden Constraints to Individualisation at the Crossroad of Tradition and Modernity

Challenges and Conflicts . . . Strengths and Supports

Most studies of marriage among African Americans have adhered to a problem-oriented perspective. Consequently, relatively little is known about enduring African American marriages. As marriage confers numerous psychosocial and economic benefits, there is merit in studying the characteristics of African American marriages that stand the test of time. Seventy-one married African American couples (mean length of marriage = 32 years) provided information regarding their religious practices, perceived reasons for their marital longevity, challenges encountered, marital happiness, and common areas of disagreement. Participant couples reported being happily married, attending church frequently, praying frequently, and believing that their faith has played a large role in their marital longevity. Responses also indicated that these couples have faced and overcome challenges and disagreements to remain married.

One marriage under God: the campaign to promote marriage in America

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Marriage Promotion, Heterosexuality and Being 1 Unite! Marriage and American Identity 2 The Stakes of Gender and Heterosexuality 3 Widening the Marriage Gap 4 Teaching Marriage to Single Mothers and Inmates 5 Marriage Recitals in High School 6 Contesting Native American Marriage Conclusion: The Power of the M-Word Appendix A: Methods Appendix B: Sample Characteristics: In-depth Interviews of Participants in Workshops for the General Population Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

A Qualitative Exploration of Why Faith Matters in African American Marriages and Families

Researchers have found recurring connections between shared marital religious involvement and improved marital stability functioning. However, researchers know little about the processes at work behind this connection. More specifically, there is a lack of data that addresses these issues in African American families, even though Black families tend to be involved in and influenced by religion. To address this paucity, in-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 60 married, African-American parents to explore the reported influence of faith in their personal, marital, and family lives. Using qualitative coding and analysis, researchers identified recurring concepts and key themes. In this chapter, six key themes relating to the interface between spiritual beliefs and Black families are presented. Those themes are: 1) “It’s more than a religion, it’s a relationship”; 2) “It’s not a sacrifice…It’s good stewardship”; 3) “Faith gets you through the rough times”; 4) “All things work together for good to them that love God”; 5) “Our last breath on earth is our first breath with Him”; and 6) “God ordained marriage and family.” Rich qualitative data from the interviews that illustrate why these spiritual/religious beliefs are seen as valuable and meaningful are presented. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth‐Century United States. KristinCelello. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.

Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States. Kristin Celello. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Kristin Celello's Making Marriage Work is a noteworthy addition to a growing field of historical scholarship on American marriage. Whereas its extended title suggests a broad study of the institutions of and divorce, the book focuses more narrowly on the messages that a set of twentieth-century marital conveyed to the public about the paths to matrimonial success. Celello examines advice literature, film, fiction, and television and radio broadcasts to identify these marital prescriptions. Through her meticulous investigation of experts' advice, she argues that while the messengers changed through the decades, their underlying message remained the same: a successful requires hard and personal sacrifice, particularly on the part of women. From University of North Carolina sociologist Ernest Groves's 1930s college courses in marriage, to relationship therapist John Gray's 1992 bestseller, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, experts have encouraged wives to commit themselves to maintaining healthy marriages, with or without the participation of their husbands. Whereas many have embraced this marriage as work formula as a piece of timeless wisdom, the idea of marital did not emerge until the early twentieth century. Concerned about rising divorce rates and the growing tendency among white, middle-class women to delay marriage, reformers like Groves sought to deflect what they perceived to be a marriage crisis. The 1920s and '30s witnessed the development of a lucrative counseling industry, which warned of the damages that divorce inflicted upon families. Early experts popularized the belief that marital success required outside aid; they simultaneously suggested that couples not pursuing help from counselors, advice columns, and manuals were less invested in their nuptials than those who utilized such tools. Although many of these self-proclaimed experts lacked the academic credentials that they claimed, their repeated assertions about the necessity of marital encouraged husbands, but especially wives, to strive for matrimonial bliss in subsequent decades. Experts pushed newlywed World War II-era wives to devote themselves to their vows, whereas their husbands served in the military, and to preserve marital harmony once their husbands returned from combat. A decade later, experts informed women of their continued responsibility to promote their families' physical and psychological well being, encouraging disenchanted housewives to endure abuse, infidelity, and alcoholism in the name of familial unity. …

Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Meaning of Marriage Among Black Men

Black men benefit from healthy, satisfying marriages in domains of physical, psychological, and financial well-being. Yet marriage among Black men has declined and remains elusive for many. One gap in the research concerns the positive meaning that Black men find in their marriages. Prior research has failed to collect in-depth accounts of Black men’s experiences of marriage. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the meaning of marriage among 52 Black men, using interview data. Findings highlight four themes in the meaning of marriage—secure emotional support, lifelong commitment, enhanced life success, and secure attachment. Two themes emerged from the data related to important influences on the construction of meaning relative to marriage—faith, and the dynamics of give and take. Responses among the men concerning the change in marriage over time related to transitions in American marriages and a deepened respect for marriage. Implications are discussed.

Engaging African American men in empirically based marriage enrichment programs: Lessons from two focus groups on the ProSAAM project.

To better meet the needs of eligible African American men who were reluctant to enroll in a 5-year study called the Program for Strong African American Marriages (ProSAAM), we employed two focus groups to listen to the voices of a sample of the population being recruited and to explore their feedback about taking part in such a marriage enrichment program and how best to recruit other African American men. We explain our application of the focus group results to our recruitment of African American married couples for ProSAAM. The positive outcomes from the implementation of these results can provide potential ideas for those seeking innovative means to improve recruitment of African American men to programs that strengthen marital relationships.

Anastasia C. Curwood . Stormy Weather: Middle‐Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2010. Pp. xiv, 196. $35.00.

Anastasia C. Curwood . Stormy Weather: Middle‐Class African American Marriages between the Two World Wars . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2010. Pp. xiv, 196. $35.00.

Mediating Multiculturally: Culture and the Ethical Mediator

This commentary on mediating multiculturally in a chapter of Mediation Ethics (edited by Ellen Waldman) suggests there are times when mediators should not mediate, because of their own ethical commitments. Commenting on a hypothetical divorce scenario (of Ziba, a 17 year old from her 44 year old husband, with two children aged 3 and 2, where the parties claim to want Shari’a principles to apply), the author (Carrie Menkel-Meadow) suggests that she would not mediate a case which might violate formal laws (American marriage and divorce laws) or infringe on rights that one of the parties might not be fully aware of. A variety of sources of ethics, including formal law, legal and mediation ethical rules, and personal ethical commitments may structure how mediators choose whether to take a case, educate the parties about their rights, make a referral, or how to mediate if complex (and different for each of the parties and/or the mediator) legal, moral, religious and cultural values are at stake. The chapter contains contrasting views expressed by two different mediators, with summary and commentary by the book’s editor.