Where Have You Gone, Norman Rockwell: A Fresh Look at the Family

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

BOSTON - While many historians spend their lives sifting through documents about American presidents or Civil War generals, Dr. Stephanie Coontz's territory is both more mundane and contentious.

Dr. Coontz, 60, a professor of family studies at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., researches how people have formed families through the ages. Her special expertise is the history of marriage. Her fifth book on the topic, "Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage," has just been released by Viking. Publisher's Weekly said Dr. Coontz "presents her arguments clearly, offering an excellent balance between the scholarly and the readable in this timely, important book."