Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing - Exploring Modern Relationships & Social Trends | Perfect for Sociology Students, Couples Counselors & Cultural Researchers" （如果原书是中文标题，翻译优化后为:） "Alone Together: The Transformation of Marriage in America - Insights on Modern Relationships & Social Shifts | Essential for Sociology Studies, Marriage Therapists & Cultural Analysts

Amato, Booth, Johnson, and Rogers have written a thorough, scholarly, and smooth reading book that documents important changes in the state (and nature) of marriages in the U. S. over the past 20 years (particularly, comparing data in 1980 and 2000). Their work covers a wide range of dimensions with particular focus on things like social connection (by couples) with others (friends, family, institutions, organizations, etc.) and the implications of these connections. Their work also encompasses changes in attitudes about marriage and divorce in this period of time, as well as changes in roles and expectations of partners in marriage.The book notes the increased isolation of couples from others, particularly as couples engaged in shared activities and commitments. Couples do best when engaged in some significant shared commitments outside their relatoinship, such as to groups, clubs, church, and efforts to help others. So, this trend toward growing isolation is concerning. They note the one exception to this trend is in involvement in religious organizations, particularly churches. There is a movement toward increased rather than decreased activities of this nature in this period of time.One of the sets of findings that I found particularly fascinating is that attitudes towards life long marriage and inhibition of divorce grew in the direction of traditional beliefs with regard to marital commitment. I had not expected this finding (I am a psychologist engaged in marital research and know the authors and their work well). However, it was not hard to "expect" it once one sees it. Specifically, the divorce rate per 1000 people in the U. S. peaked in 1981 and the authors essentially find a modest, but significant swinging of the pendulum back in the direction of what most people clearly aspire to (if not able to achieve) in marriage: "til death do us part." The analysis of what is associated with these attitudinal shifts and what is not is fascinating.Overall, the book is crammed full of very clear, digestable findings on trends in marriage. The background research here is stellar and this is as fine of a team of family scholars as exist today. What is particularly delightful is how readable this text is. There are no tedious presentations of the underlying math, yet they make very clear how they arrive at the various conclusions and what variables are or are not controlled for in specific analyses.I highly recommend this book. If you like this subject and are of research and/or social observation, you will like this work.