Marriage and Caste in America:
Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age

(Ivan R. Dee, November 2006)
By Kay S. Hymowitz, William E. Simon fellow and City Journal contributing editor

Reviews/Mentions

The frayed knot—Marriage in America The Economist, 05-24-07

The Elusive Altar By David Brooks, New York Times, 01-18-07

Social ills demand an altared view By Patrick McIlheran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 01-16-07

That Ring Makes a Difference Charlotte Hays, Wall Street Journal, 12-13-06
. . . The Marriage Gap, as Ms. Hymowitz calls it, appears likely to have a more profound effect on the future of both Americas than the gender gap so lamented by the feminists. . .

Lifestyles of the poor and anonymous Suzanne Fields, Townhall.com, 12-04-06
...As Kay Hymowitz reminds us in her persuasively documented book called "Marriage and Caste in America,". . . Few people today think divorce and single parenthood are equal-opportunity misfortunes in a house on the beach of Malibu or a trailer camp in West Virginia, but we're still slow in finding solutions for the disastrous consequences of single parenthood in the underclass, which more than any other single ingredient contributes to a caste system in America. . .

Single Mothers, Many Problems Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 12-01-06
...Missing in almost all these approaches is what the Manhattan's Institute's Kay Hymowitz refers to as "the M-word." She told us that while high-school girls may accept advice to finish their education before having children, the "wait until" message doesn't include marriage. . .In her new book, "Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age," Ms. Hymowitz documents how, by refusing to emphasize the link between marriage and successful child raising, "we have created a new demographic, which is the poor, working, single mother...

Unwed-Birth Boom: Bad News Christine Whelan, New York Post, 11-29-06
...Educated women want to raise educated, successful children - and they realize that having a husband in the picture makes it easier to devote time to a child's development, argues Kay Hymowitz. Indeed, she sees it as a new class divide: Her new book is titled "Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age." ...

Incubators of decline Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News, 11-28-06
...If Hymowitz is right, America's evolving caste system will contain an explosive racial and ethnic element, too, given the sky-high rate of single motherhood among blacks and the fact that out-of-wedlock births are growing fastest today among Hispanic women....

"Marriage and Caste in America is the best single book on the damage being done to our nation by the explosion of divorce and nonmarital births since the 1960s. Beginning with the widely ignored fact that it is minorities and the poor who are disproportionately affected by family breakdown, this provocative book presents a disturbing tale of cultural meltdown. Reading it is like reading a cultural obituary."
—Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Co-Director, Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution

"No one writes with more verve and wisdom about families as the incubators of success or failure than Kay Hymowitz—she's a national treasure."
—William J. Bennett, is the Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute and a former secretary of education under President Reagan. He is also the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Bill Bennett's Morning in America.

"It takes courage and intellect to penetrate deliberate obfuscation. Kay Hymowitz has them both. America could save itself a lot of trouble by paying attention to what she writes."
—Theodore Dalrymple, author of Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

"Kay Hymowitz thoughtfully takes on the minimalists who say a marriage is just a shack-up plus a piece of paper. Her elegant essays show that marriage is an essential culture-preserver, poverty-fighter, and life-improver."
—Dr. Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief, World