Not Just Roommates: Cohabitation after the Sexual Revolution
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.45 (585 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0226671046 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-07-23 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"At a time when forty percent of children are born to unmarried couples, this book gives desperately needed historical perspective to the most profound, consequential development in private life of the past half century: the explosive growth of cohabitation outside of wedlock. Elizabeth Pleck not only explains how a phenomenon that sixty years ago was derided as 'living in sin' became the norm, she comments forcefully and utterly convincingly about how law and public policy have failed to take account of a fundamental shift in American life." (Steven Mintz, Columbia University)"
The late twentieth century has seen a fantastic expansion of personal, sexual, and domestic liberties in the United States. In Not Just Roommates, Elizabeth H. Pleck explores the rise of cohabitation, and the changing social norms that have allowed cohabitation to become the chosen lifestyle of more than fifteen million Americans.Despite this growing social acceptance, Pleck contends that when it comes to the law, cohabitors have been, and continue to be, treated as second-class citizens, subjected to discriminatory laws, limited privacy, a lack of political representation, and little hope for change. Because cohabitation is not a sexual identity, Pleck argues, cohabitors face the legal discrimination of a population with no group identity, no civil rights movement, no legal defense organizations, and, often, no consciousness of being discriminated against. Through in-depth research in written sources and interviews, Pleck shines a light on the emergence of cohabitation in American culture, its complex history, and its unpleasant realities in the present day.
Her most recent book is Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England.. Elizabeth Pleck is professor emerita of history and human development and family studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has edited nine books about the history of American families