Book Review: Alone Together
By Jeremy Adam Smith | Summer 2007 | 0 commentsBy Paul R. Amato, Alan Booth, David R. Johnson, and Stacy J. Rogers
Harvard University Press, 2007, 336 pages
In Alone Together, four Pennsylvania State University researchers use two identical national surveys, one conducted in 1980 and the other in 2000, to quantitatively track how the experience of marriage has changed over a 20-year period. The bad news is that husbands and wives today are spending less time with each other and participate in fewer community activities. But the good news is that they are far more equal than they were in the past, which has led to rising family incomes, less violence, and more empathy and cooperation between spouses. The book provides welcome relief from political rhetoric and refutes extreme views of the family, instead painting a complex picture of marriage in transition.
About The Author
Jeremy Adam Smith is Web Editor of the Greater Good Science Center and a 2013 fellow with the Institute for Justice and Journalism. He is also the author or coeditor of four books, including The Daddy Shift, Rad Dad, and The Compassionate Instinct. Before joining the GGSC, Jeremy was a 2010-11 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. You can follow him on Twitter!
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