Published by Harvard University Press

Social Trends in the United States

Volumes

Book 1984

Blacks and Whites

Narrowing the Gap?

Reynolds Farley

Volume 3 in this series

More Cite

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674189225
ISBN:: 9780674189218
ISBN:: 9780674189225
Subject:: Social Sciences
Subject:: Sociology
Subject:: Sociology, other
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Book 2022

With roller coaster changes in marriage and divorce rates apparently leveling off in the 1980s, Andrew Cherlin feels that the time is right for an overall assessment of marital trends. His graceful and informal book surveys and explains the latest research on marriage, divorce, and remarriage since World War II. Cherlin presents the facts about family change over the past thirty-five years and examines the reasons for the trends that emerge. He views the 1950s, when Americans were marrying and having children early and divorcing infrequently, as the aberration, and he discusses why this period was unusual. He also explores the causes and consequences of the dramatic changes since 1960—increases in divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation, decreases in fertility—that are altering the very definition of the family in our society. He concludes with a discussion of the increasing differences in the marital patterns of black and white families over the past few decades.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674029491
ISBN:: 9780674029491
Subject:: Social Sciences
Subject:: Sociology
Subject:: Sociology, other
Publisher:: Harvard University Press

Social Trends in the United States

Blacks and Whites

Narrowing the Gap?

Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage

Revised and Enlarged Edition