Summery of Coontz- The Radical Idea of marrying for love - Assignment Example

Summary of “The radical idea of marrying for love” by Stephanie Coontz. The chapter in question is the opening section of Stephanie Coontz’s book on the topic of love and marriage. It states the key idea that throughout history, and in many different countries across the globe, marrying for love has been regarded as a crazy idea. Examples from ancient Greek and Roman history, Medieval Europe, and even Eskimo, African and Middle Eastern cultures are cited to show that marriage was most often regarded as a political and economic union, in which exclusive romantic feelings were more of a hindrance than a help.

Men and women certainly did have relationships founded upon deep and passionate love, but these were generally not expected to occur within the bounds of marriage. Various other arrangements including concubines, secret lovers, and love between members of the same sex were regarded as the proper context for love. At some point in recent history the two concepts of love and marriage have grown closer, with the consequence that many more people have the ambition of marrying for love and remaining faithful to their partner throughout their whole lives.

At the end of the chapter Coontz suggests that this social practice is gaining in popularity across the world, but that it also presents people with unrealistic expectations. It is very hard to sustain this kind of relationship, which invests most of a person’s emotional commitment to just one other person, and this factor may, in the end, undermine the popularity of the love-based marriage in cultures across the world. [250 words]ReferencesCoontz, S. (2006) The radical idea of marrying for love.

In Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage (pp. 15-33). New York: Viking.