Kay Hymowitz thoughtfully takes on the minimalists who say a marriage is just a shack-up plus a piece of paper. Her elegant essays show that marriage is an essential culture-preserver, poverty-fighter, and life-improver. (Dr. Marvin Olasky, editor–in–chief
World )
America could save itself a lot of trouble by paying attention to what [Hymowitz] writes. (Theodore Dalrymple, author of Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses )
A sobering investigation of the widening gap in the American social structure that's being caused by new attitudes toward marriage. (Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution )
The most fascinating (but grimmest) sections...deal with child-rearing skills in unmarried America. (Charlotte Hays
The Wall Street Journal )
Marriage and Caste in America should provoke serious thought about how marriage has become a class issue—and what we can do about it. (Christine B. Whelan
New York Post )
Essential. (David Brooks
The New York Times )
Hymowitz...has concluded that the family revolution [is both] bad news for children [and] has had the effect of stratifying the country as a whole. (
Steve Goddard's History Wire )
Hymowitz provides an arresting diagnosis of American social ills. (Cheryl Miller
The American Conservative )
Hymowitz has the gift of being able to convey complicated ideas, theories, and history in lucid and witty language. (Lisa Schiffren
Commentary )
A strong case for the value of marriage. (
Today's Machine World )
A short and readable volume.... Hymowitz has surely contributed...to creating the present hopeful moment for mainstream America. (Claudia Anderson
The Weekly Standard )
Kay Hymowitz makes a persuasive case in
Marriage and Caste in America that the best social program is actually marriage. (David Forsmark
Front Page Magazine )
[The author] has the gift of being able to convey complicated ideas, theories, and history in language that is lucid and-most precious of all in discussions of marriage and family-witty. It is a pleasure to read her essays....an intelligent, compelling case....Clear and forceful conclusions about what is missing from the impoverished lives that she describes so well. (
Book Review Digest )
Hymowitz cogently lays out a case that when it comes to reducing poverty, economics and family structure can't be separated. (
Newsobserver.Com )
Beautifully written tour de force of contemporary American family life. (W Bradford Wilcox
First Things )
Powerful...unflinching...analysis of this crisis of the black abandonment of marriage. (Gregory J. Sullivan
Evening Bulletin )
[A] fascinating and informational [book] that you ought to read. (Dr. Laura Schlessinger )
Kay S. Hymowitz is the author of
Liberation's Children and
Ready or Not, and has written extensively on education and childhood in America in articles for the
New York Times, the
Washington Post, the
Wall Street Journal, and the
New Republic, among other publications. She is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York City and a contributing editor of
City Journal. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.