In this rigorous and enlightening account of why American families have transformed so much since the 1960s, two leading scholars of family law argue that the changing economy, rather than changing morals, is at the root of family instability.

Introduction ; Section I: The Puzzles of Today's Families ; Chapter 1: Changing Families ; Chapter 2: The New Foundations for Family Life: The Disappearance of the Center and the Emergence of Marriage As a Marker of Class ; Chapter 3: Not Blaming the Victim: Derailed by Moynihan ; Chapter 4: Blaming the Victim: The Morality Tale ; Chapter 5: Getting Closer: The Rediscovery of Marriage Markets ; Section II: The New Terms ; Chapter 6: The Heart of the Matter ; Chapter 7: Where the Men Are ; Chapter 8: Remaking Class Barriers: Children and Achievement ; Chapter 9: The Recreation of Class ; Section III Legalizing Inequality: The Class Divide in the Meaning of Family Law ; Chapter 10: The Law: Rewriting the Marital Script ; Chapter 11: Shared Parenting: Egalitarian, Patriarchal or Both? ; Section IV Rebuilding Community: Inequality, Class, and Family ; Chapter 12: Rebuilding From the Top Down: The Family, Inequality and Employment ; Chapter 13: Rebuilding from the Bottom up: Addressing Children's Needs. ; Chapter 14: Sex, Power, Patriarchy and Parental Obligation ; Chapter 15: The Rebirth of Community and the Family

"Marriage Markets answers some of the most critical questions our society faces: what is happening to our families and what is happening to our economy? Why is the country growing apart economically at the same time some families are disintegrating? For those interested in these questions, the authors provide fresh analysis, new ideas and a path forward. This is an important book that should guide not only what we think about rising inequality but what we do about it."-Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress "A new kind of class chasm is opening in America, one defined not by money but by a widening gap between marital haves and have-nots. You can't understand where our country is headed, the changing nature of inequality, and why poor and working-class kids are losing out without reading this book. It's that simple."-Jonathan Rauch, Brookings Institution "Professors Carbone and Cahn have a knack for taking mountains of data from a wide variety of sources, distilling it into readable text, and developing unique theories that fit."-Margaret Brinig, Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law, Notre Dame Law School "Marriage is a political lightning rod, attracting the energy of both the left and right in the United States, but the energy released often provides more heat than light. Without examining marriage in the context of inequality, there is little hope of understanding where we've been, where we're headed, and what policy and the law can do to help those most vulnerable to the disruption, deprivation and dispossession that make life difficult for so many American families. In providing that context-with lucid prose and in-depth analysis-Carbone and Cahn provide a rich contribution to the debate over the past and future of marriage."-Philip N. Cohen, Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park "A brutally realistic account of what wealth inequality has done to the American family. Diverse social practices-hook-up culture, college debt, women's economic advances-have resulted in stunningly class-based family patterns: little marriage at the bottom and hunky-dory arrangements at the top. The authors take on in concrete detail how family law must take account of the new structures of intimate life."-Carol Sanger, Barbara Aronstein Professor of Law, Columbia Law School "A crisp and cogent account - rich with detail and utterly free of legalese - of America's failure to invest in its children." - New York Times "Marriage Markets is a book worth reading, pondering and discussing." -Maggie Gallagher "Marriage Markets is an important book for lawyers, sociologists, and anyone who cares about families in an era of increasing inequality." -Nancy Levit, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Concurring Opinions "Along with the highly structured cost-benefit analysis of marriage for different economic groups, Carbone and Cahn present an interesting analysis of how family law has institutionalized the realities of the 21st-century workforce." -Publishers Weekly "Just like health, education, and seemingly every other advantage in life, a stable two-parent home has become a luxury that only the well-off can afford. The best educated and most prosperous have the most stable families, while working class families have seen the greatest increase in relationship instability. Why is this so? The book provides the answer" -Elm Street Books "This is the sort of book that reminds me why I became a sociologist (now lapsed). Carbone and Cahn, a couple of law professors, draw on a wide body of sociological literature to explain how trends in economic inequality and changing family formation patterns reinforce each other." -Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed "As June Carbone and Naomi Cahn demonstrate with exceptional rigor, clarity, and elegance, the white picket fences of this mythical family have been swept away by a series of economic, social, and cultural shifts that have altered the 'gender bargain' at the core of the traditional family." -Jennifer M. Silva, FDL Book Salon "In Marriage Markets, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, law professors at the University of Minnesota and George Washington University respectively, argue that the increasing economic inequality in the United States is wreaking havoc on American families, creating a vast chasm in family patterns between the haves and the have-nots." --Harvard Law Review

Selling point: Presents a provocative yet persuasive argument drawn from original research that ties together sociology, economics, politics, law, and policy Selling point: Exposes the inadequacy of common explanations for a shift in the American family Selling point: Explains the way that the law increases fathers' rights for well off men while making it more difficult for poorer men to have contact with their children Selling point: Written by well-known experts on the subject

June Carbone is the inaugural holder of the Robina Chair of Law, Science and Technology at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of From Partners to Parents: The Second Revolution in Family Law, the third and fourth editions of Family Law with Leslie Harris and the late Lee Teitelbaum, and Red Families v. Blue Families with Naomi Cahn. She is also a member of the Yale Cultural Cognition Project. Naomi Cahn, the Harold H. Greene Professor at George Washington University Law School, has written numerous articles and several books in a variety of areas. With June Carbone, she has also co-authored Red Families v. Blue Families. Other books include: Finding Our Families (with Wendy Kramer); The New Kinship: Constructing Donor-Conceived Families; and co-authored casebooks in family law and trusts and estates. She is a Senior Fellow at the Donaldson Adoption Institute, a board member for the Donor Sibling Registry, and a member of the GW Global Gender Program advisory board.

Selling point: Presents a provocative yet persuasive argument drawn from original research that ties together sociology, economics, politics, law, and policy Selling point: Exposes the inadequacy of common explanations for a shift in the American family Selling point: Explains the way that the law increases fathers' rights for well off men while making it more difficult for poorer men to have contact with their children Selling point: Written by well-known experts on the subject