MY column last month about the dangers of nostalgia inspired many readers to write to me about their family memories of the 1950s and '60s. Some shared poignant stories about the discrimination they encountered as blacks, women, gay men or lesbians. Others described how much easier it was for their working-class fathers to support a family back then.
HERE'S an old riddle: a boy and his father are in a car crash and the father is killed instantly. The boy is airlifted to the best hospital in the region and prepped for emergency surgery by one of the top surgeons in the country. The surgeon rushes in, sees the boy, and says "I can't operate on this patient. He's my son." Who is the surgeon?
When I heard this riddle as a teenager back in 1962, I was totally stumped. Had the boy been adopted, and the surgeon was the birth father?
FIFTY years ago, Betty Friedan made a startling prediction in her controversial best seller, "The Feminine Mystique." If American housewives would embark on lifelong careers, she claimed, they would be happier and healthier, their marriages would be more satisfying, and their children would thrive.
IT'S always seductive to know where one stands in relation to the average. As an overly confident college freshman, the first time I received a below-average score on an exam was a needed wake-up call. Today, I find it encouraging to read that I exercise more than the average woman my age.
AS a historian, I've spent much of my career warning people about the dangers of nostalgia. But as a mother, watching my son graduate from medical school on Thursday, I have been awash in nostalgia all week.
THIS week is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan's international best seller, "The Feminine Mystique," which has been widely credited with igniting the women's movement of the 1960s. Readers who return to this feminist classic today are often puzzled by the absence of concrete political proposals to change the status of women. But "The Feminine Mystique" had the impact it did because it focused on transforming women's personal consciousness.
Stephanie Coontz, professor of history and family studies at The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington, shares her learned perspective in an intriguing oeuvre of books—Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage; The Way We Never Were; The Way We Really Are; and A Strange Stirring. She’s also co-chair and director of public education at the University of Miami’s research-based nonprofit Council on Contemporary Families.
Defending the motion: Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program
If we could devise ways to increase the marriage rate with modest negative outcomes such as somewhat increased divorce, adults, children and society would be better off. But can it be done?
Against the motion: Stephanie Coontz, Teacher, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Defending the motion: Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program
The question of whether the government is involved in marriage has already been answered in the affirmative by the many local, state, and federal laws and regulations that affect marriage.
Against the motion: Stephanie Coontz, Teacher, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Rumours of the death of marriage are greatly exaggerated. Marriage rates are calculated on the basis of how many women over age 18 are married.
(CNN) -- How could they not have known they were asking for trouble? In the past few years, Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana had an affair with the staff member who had helped him produce a video promoting sexual abstinence. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford flew to Argentina for an extramarital tryst, instructing his staff to tell the press he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Sen. John Edwards tried to pass off the daughter he fathered as the love child of one of his aides.