Free Republic

In the ivory tower today, the idea that marriage is good is apparently considered an extremist notion. On the other hand, the idea that there are few real differences between normal men and convicted rapists is regarded as cutting-edge theory. That, at least, seems to be the conclusion of Harvard University Press, which recently, and under highly unusual circumstances, rejected an important new book on the benefits of marriage. The book — The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off — is by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, and has just been published, to considerable...

Forty years ago, a study called the Hammond Report analyzed the smoking habits of half a million people. Its conclusion: Smoking is dangerous to one's health. It was a warning that ended up on every pack of cigarettes sold. Ten years later, a researcher took another look at the Hammond Report and found something that had been overlooked -- something just as hazardous as a pack-a-day cigarette habit -- that is, divorce. As Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher write in their book, THE CASE FOR MARRIAGE, an enterprising Surgeon General might wish to slap a warning label on divorce decrees,...