Questions for each reading assignment:

Updated regularly, so check back as the quarter progresses.

Week 1:
Sep 26	Introduction to the class
Sep 28	Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Chapter 1 (Demographic Trends). * What is a cohort? * What is the Baby Boom and when did it occur? * Can you see evidence of the Baby Boom in Figure 1-1? * What is the trend in extra marital cohabitation, and what is the effect of education on cohabitation? (see Figure 1-2) * What is the effect of longer life expectancy on the percentage of marriages that eventually end in divorce? Presenter:
Week 2:
Oct 3	Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Chapters 2+3 (Explanations and Consequences) * What is the difference between 'period' and 'cohort' explanations for the baby boom? What evidence is available for each explanation? * What is the trend in married women's labor force participation, how might this effect the divorce rate? * What is Easterlin's cohort size hypothesis? * What are the effects of divorce and what are some limitations of the research on the effects of divorce? Presenter:
Oct 5	Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Chapters 4+5 (Race and Poverty, The State of Our Unions) * What are the differences between white and black family patterns in the late 20th century, and what explains these differences? * What is the story of the infamous 'Harvard-Yale' study of female marriage probabilities?
Week 3:
Oct 10	Wilson, The Marriage Problem, Ch 1-3 (Two Nations, Why Do Families Exist, Sex and the Marriage Market) * What does Wilson view as some of the drawbacks to cohabitation (from a personal or societal view) as compared to marriage? * What are some of the advantages of marriage for the couple, for children, and for society? * What is the sex ratio, and how can it explain culture and gender roles? Presenter:
Oct 12	Wilson, The Marriage Problem, Ch 4 (The Rise of Modern Marriage) * How does the history of marriage relate to the history of property rights? * Where do the ideas of individual freedom and individual rights come from, and how do these ideas effect marriage? Presenter:
Week 4:
Oct 17	Wilson, The Marriage Problem, Ch 5-7 (African Americans and Slavery, Mother-Only Families, Divorce) * What was Gutman's argument about slavery and the black family, and what is Wilson's critique of this argument? * Does welfare give poor women an incentive to have children out of wedlock? * Compare Wilson's analysis on the effects of divorce to Cherlin's analysis. Presenter:
Oct 19	Wilson, The Marriage Problem, Ch 8-9 (Working Mothers, The Cultural Challenge) * What is Wilson's view of working mothers? Does women's access to the formal labor market count as progress? * What kind of gender equality does Wilson believe in? * How does the fraying of the traditional family system (in Wilson's view) undermine social order?
Week 5:
Oct 24	Bailey, Front Porch, p. 1-56 (Introduction, Calling Cards and Money, The Economy of Dating) * What was 'calling', what is 'dating', how do they differ? * When did dating replace calling, and what explains the transition? What did it mean for a woman to 'have her hat on'?
	Bailey, Front Porch, p. 57-96 (The Worth of a Date, Sex Control) * Who had the money to pay for the date and what was the significance of this for gender relations? * What were the Kinsey reports, what did the reports show and how were they received? * What were college rules for dating in the mid 20th century, and what do these rules imply about social norms more generally? Presenter:
Week 6:
Oct 31	Bailey, Front Porch, p. 97-145 (The Etiquette of Masculinity, Scientific Truth, Epilogue) * What kind of evidence does Bailey rely upon, and how valid do you think it is? * What are the intellectual and cultural sources which advocate inherent gender differences in behavior and attitudes between men and women, and how did these theories fare in the 1960s? * What customs have replaced dating, and why? Presenter:
Nov 2	Arnett and Taber, "Adolescence Terminable and Interminable" * What is the difference between broad and narrow socialization, and what kinds of societies foster the different kinds of socialization? * What kinds of pathways through adolescence can be expected in social groups which emphasize broad socialization? How about social groups which emphasize narrow socialization? * Why is adolescence a time of recklessness and experimentation? What do different societies do to control or channel adolescent energy?
Week 7:
Nov 7	Shammas, "Anglo-American Household Government" * In what sense was the household a government in Colonial North America? * What was the European settlers' attitude towards the family system of the Native Americans, and why were the Europeans concerned about family norms among the native peoples? Presenter:
Nov 9	Rosenfeld and Kim "The Independence of Young Adults" * What is the independent life stage, and what is its significance? * Are single young adults more or less likely to live with their parents than they were in the past? * What is the relationship between geographic mobility and nontraditional unions? Presenter:
Week 8:
Nov 14	Rosenfeld "Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change" * What is the evidence for the claim that family government did not decline during the industrial revolution? * How does the persistence of family government explain the absence of nontraditional unions in the past? * What were the views of Calhoun, Hareven, LePlay, and Ellen Rothman's diarists about the effect of industrialization on the family? Presenter:
Nov 16	Sullivan, Same Sex Marriage Pro and Con, chapters 4 and 5 * What are the politically Left arguments against same sex marriage? * What are the politically conservative arguments for same sex marriage? * What do these different political perspectives on same sex marriage tell us about the different political views of what marriage means? Presenter:
Nov 21	Thanksgiving Recess
Nov 23	Thanksgiving Recess
Week 9:
Nov 28	Harris, The Nurture Assumption, Preface, Introduction, Ch 1,2,3,9,10 * What have researchers learned about birth order, and how does Harris interpret the results? * In what sense do good children produce good parents? * If socialization theory is so misguided, why is the theory so popular? * What does Harris have to say about Freud, Bettleheim, Mead, and Baumrind? * What role does peer socialization play compared to parental socialization? Presenter:
Nov 30	Harris, The Nurture Assumption, Ch 13, 14, 15 * If Harris doesn’t believe that nurture matters, then what is wrong with being cruel to your children? * What are the causes and effects of divorce? * What can parents do to raise good children? Presenter:
Week 10:
Dec 5	Sullivan, Same Sex Marriage Pro and Con, chapters 3 and 8 * What are the legal precedents for same sex marriage, and what is the current legal status of same sex marriage? * What do incest, polygamy, and adultery have to do with same sex marriage? * What does the 'slippery slope' argument imply about marriage and history? Presenter:
Dec 7	Last class, no reading assignment.