An Interview with Kristin Celello, Ph.D. on the History of Marriage in 20th Century America

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Dr. Van Nuys interviews Kristin Celello, Ph.D. on the History of Marriage in 20th Century America.". Kristin Celello, Ph.D., an historian, is the author of the book, "Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States". The main idea of the book is that public attitudes towards marriage changed radically across the 20th Century, starting at a position best described as "duty", and ultimately arriving at a position best described as "work". This is to say, in the early years of the 20th Century, people endured marriages when they didn't work well there was no marriage counseling and few remedies such as easy access to divorce. By the end of the 20th Century, attitudes towards marriage had shifted from thinking of marriage as something static and relatively unchangeable which needed to be endured to something you needed to work at actively a process that required your focused attention in order to keep it functioning well, and which was capable of being nurtured into better health if it was ailing.