For keeps

Derived from the author's own survey (the Long island Long-Term Marriage Survey), this book unveils the most important factors contributing to the longevity of marriages. It's based on completed questionnaires from 576 couples, and in-depth follow-up interviews with sixty of these couples, making this the largest survey to date of couples married fifty years or more. The interviews allowed the spouses to tell their life stories (excerpted in the book), and to contrast their marriages to those of younger generations, adding an intergenerational comparative perspective. The author organizes the book around the major life events experienced by her respondents: meeting, courtship, and marriage; having children; conflicts and their resolution; sharing household chores; working spouses; retirement. Throughout, Alford-Cooper has included longer vignettes in which couples tell the stories of their lives together, giving the book a freshness that only first-hand narrative can communicate.