Helena's Reviews > Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation

Ostensibly about the history of marriage in the US, this book actually spend a good deal of time touching on the path to citizenship of many races and nationalities of people through the nations history. Although it has only a brief version of each, it's definitely has made me want to read more on these topics. Now to attempt to find good books on the immediate post slavery era and the history of Japanese American immigration…

I also found the section on Social Security and race very interesting and want to know more but this book did not go into enough detail (this is not necessarily a criticism as it is not the main point of this book). Need to find a book on that as well.

In general, I very much like reading this kind of book which summarizes it straight through the lens of one particular topic. It is often shocking to see how fast things change and just how little time has passed since certain norms were seem to be unavoidable that now seem unthinkable.

Obviously, the final chapter of this particular book does need an update and a new edition would probably be quite welcome. This is copyright 2000 and obviously there have been significant updates in marital policy since then. Nonetheless this book has been quite interesting and worthwhile, and I very much enjoyed reading it.