ABSTRACT
The twentieth century has seen profound changes in marriage and the marriage system', indeed it is tempting to argue that we have seen the 'rise and fall' of marriage. This would be premature, behaviour in relation to such a long-lived institution is notoriously hard to predict. However, there have been major changes in terms of how many people get married, when they do so, how many have children outside marriage, how many divorce and how many cohabit. The meaning of marriage has also changed. The reasons for these changes are matters of huge debate among historians and social scientists, although marriage in and of itself has been a relatively neglected subject. Commentary on it is all too often confined to what happens after it ends in divorce.
