Royal Wedding Fever

Well this one is going to run and run - for quite a time. To start with, you may find it helpful to check out this offering from Laurie Taylor a couple of weeks ago, which points out how our views of marriage and the family is thoroughly pervaded by myths.

Was there ever a golden age of the family? Political debates about the family often invoke a norm of family life in which marriages lasted and children thrived. A new report suggests that pre-marital sex, cohabitation, single parenthood and illegitimacy have been rife for two centuries. It’s the post war period from 1945-1970 which is unusual for its high rates of enduring marriages. Many people in the past didn’t ever marry because of the problems in obtaining or affording a divorce. Historian Pat Thane discusses families, both real and ideal, with Laurie Taylor.