Britain in the sixties: the family and marriage

Pulpits, rostrums, and the more deeply entrenched batteries of press and radio resound with lamentations about the decay of family life In Britain. Immorality, ivorce, and delinquency stalk the land... or so we are told.

Is there any truth in this murky picture? Or, on the contrary, do the facts quietly pronounce that the family is more stable today than ever in history? For history, when we survey all classes impartially, is a long tale of poverty, drudgery, desertion, and vagrancy.

In this systematic analysis of the subject, a sociologist discusses the extraordinary coherence of the family group in the face of social changes and provides answers to questions which are often anxiously posed to us: Are too many married women working in industry? Is delinquency increasing alarmingly? Has discipline within the family utterly disappeared, or is today's relationship between father and children a new and fuller one? Have teenagers really so much money to spend? And, even if this is so, is it so deplorable?