Inside the American Couple

Marilyn Yalom is Senior Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University and author of A History of the Wife (2001), A History of the Breast (1997), Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory (1993), and Maternity, Mortality, and the Literature of Madness (1985). Laura Carstensen is Professor of Psychology and the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. She has published more than eighty articles and chapters on life-span development, marriage, and emotion.

• Acknowledgments Introduction Laura L. Carstensen and Marilyn Yalom 1. Biblical Models: From Adam and Eve to the Bride of Christ Marilyn Yalom 2. Dearest Friend: The Marriage of Abigail and John Adams Edith Gelles 3. "The Thing Bartered": Love, Economics, and the Victorian Couple Kate Washington 4. "Boston Marriage" among Lesbians: Are We a Couple If We're Not Having Sex? Esther D. Rothblum 5. "You'll Never Walk Alone": Lesbian and Gay Weddings and the Authenticity of the Same-Sex Couple Ellen Lewin 6. The Couple at Home Education's Contribution Nel Noddings 7. When One of Us Is Ill: Scenes from a Partnership Mary Felstiner 8. Wives and Husbands Working Together: Law Partners and Marital Partners Cynthia Fuchs Epstein 9. Grounds for Marriage Reflections and Research on an Institution in Transition Arlene Skolnick 10. Divorce, American Style Deborah L. Rhode 11. Divorce, Executive Style: What's a Wife Worth? Myra H. Strober 12. Toward an Understanding of Asian American Interracial Marriage and Dating Jeanne L. Tsai, Diane E. Przymus, and Jennifer L. Best 13. Arranged Marriages (What's Love Got to Do with It?) Monisha Pasupathi 14. Marriage in Old Age Susan Turk Charles and Laura L. Carstensen List of Contributors Index

"By interrogating rather than accepting traditional platitudes about our need to be coupled, this vital and original collection both broadens our understanding of what constitutes a couple and deepens our appreciation for the human needs that coupling meets."-Michael S. Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural Reader; "Reading this book is like looking at a crystal-first one interesting facet of coupledom and then another comes into view. It's entrancing!"-Barrie Thorne, Director, Center for Working Families, University of California-Berkeley