There was a time when the phrase "American family" conjured up a single, specific image: a breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and their 2.5 kids living comfortable lives in a middle-class suburb. Today, that is no longer the case, due to divorce rates, single parenthood, and increased out-of-wedlock births. Most Americans fail to identify the root factor driving the changes: economic inequality that is remaking the American family along class lines.
Naomi Cahn and June Carbone give an enlightening account of why American families have changed through the examination of how macroeconomic forces are transforming the family and how working class and lower income families have paid the highest price. "Marriage Markets" cuts through the ideological and moralistic rhetoric that drives our current debate. It offers critically needed solutions for a problem that will haunt America for generations to come.