Marriage rates have fallen sharply since the 1970s, yet most Americans still say they want to marry. So why do so many people tell pollsters they have "no idea" whether they'll actually end up married? And why are young women, for the first time, more uncertain than young men?

In For Better and Worse: The Complicated Past and Challenging Future of Marriage, historian Stephanie Coontz draws on five pivotal periods of historical transformation to trace how shifting gender expectations, romantic ideals, and cultural myths have left us with contradictory beliefs and habits that make it hard to build the relationships we actually want. She challenges both those who see marriage as the only path to stability and those who see it as inherently oppressive, charting a new middle ground based on what actually helps relationships. 

Join New America's Better Life Lab on July 1 from 1 to 2 p.m. for a virtual conversation with author Stephanie Coontz, journalist Anna Louie Sussman, and Better Life Lab Senior Writer and Researcher Haley Swenson, who contributed the afterword to the book. Together, they'll explore what history can teach us about where we are now, and why, despite everything, there is real reason for hope.