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    I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage
    I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage
    I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage
    Ebook335 pages5 hours

    I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage

    By Susan Squire

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    For 10,000 years, marriage - and the idea of marriage -- has been at the very foundation of human society. In this provocative and ambitious book, Susan Squire unravels the turbulent history and many implications of our most basic institution. Starting with the discovery, long before recorded time, that sex leads to paternity (and hence to couplehood), and leading up to the dawn of the modern "love marriage," Squire delves into the many ways men and women have come together and what the state of their unions has meant for history, society, and politics - especially the politics of the home.
    This book is the product of 13 years of intense research, but even more than the intellectual scope, what sets it apart is Squire's voice and contrarian boldness. Learned, acerbic, opinionated, and funny, she draws on everything from Sumerian mythology to Renaissance theater to Victorian housewife's manuals (sometimes all at the same time) to create a vivid, kaleidoscopic view of the many things marriage has been and has meant. The result is a book that will provoke and fascinate readers of all ideological stripes: feminists, traditionalists, conservatives and progressives alike.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateJan 15, 2011
    ISBN9781608196562
    I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage
    Author

    Susan Squire

    Susan Squire is the author of The Slender Balance and For Better, For Worse: A Candid Chronicle of Five Couples Adjusting to Parenthood. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Playboy, New York magazine, and the Washington Post, among many others. She has been married to book editor David Hirshey for 19 years.

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    Reviews for I Don't

    3.5/5

    28 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An eye opening book, with a twist of fun writing. I loved it!
    • 3/5
      Lots of fun to read....but not enough substance. I was promised "A Contrarian History of Marriage", but what I got instead was a glossy account (albeit amusing and well-written) of gender discord and inequity from earliest recorded time to the rise of Lutheranism.Still a worthy topic for a book, just not what I was expecting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      This was actually a drag to read in most parts. I wanted to like it and it does put forward some welcome critiques on patriarchy and gender inequality. However there MUST be better and more poignant material out there on the subject..

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This is a witty, often hilariously humorous book, the history of marriage in the West from antiquity to the Reformation. Given how dismal much of that history is, Squire somehow managed to keep me (a male of a certain number of years and with some knowledge of most of the authors whom she discusses) reading and enjoying. I do wish she had acknowledged how extreme and marginal Margery Kempe was considered both in her own time and even now, however.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. It seems to be a pretty comprehensive history of the European, Biblical marriage. I left it wanting to know more about the history of marriage, maybe going into the Muslim and Eastern religions. She repeated herself a lot, which made her text somewhat dense. But the book was kept interesting by some of the practices she cited.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      First off, I have to address it, the editing was pretty atrocious (I found at least 3 really glaring and embarrassing spelling mistakes/unfinished sentences); however, the information contained in the book was fascinating enough to make this Not a Big Deal. The author is witty and I found myself laughing out loud on lots of occasions. The writing style took some time to get used to, because I'm usually reading mass market type non-fiction. Susan Squire assumes you already know quite a bit about history, theology, philosophy and feminism if you've picked up this book, so there isn't much in the way of explanation. This made the book smooth reading once I adjusted - nothing there to interrupt the flow of ideas.The author begins in the Garden of Eden with the Bible's multiple takes on marriage and escorts us up to Martin Luther's front porch. I found the bits about the Classical/Ancient world the most interesting, and it was interesting to see how the same handful of theories were expressed in so many different forms and guises. Overall, a great review of wife and husband roles through a large chunk of history - quick and fun to read.

    Book preview

    I Don't - Susan Squire

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