Historians who write about families are usually feminists who think in terms of gender relations.

Political biography is in the doldrums. No one wants to read 800 pages or so of cradle-to-grave dead politics, especially if it's familiar stuff and has all been written about before.

Romantic love came under attack, first from the Freudians and then from the neuroscientists, who said that being in love was a chemical reaction in the brain. Marriage is no longer seen as a lifetime commitment.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that secrets are toxic and break up families.

For a while, I thought the great disappointment of my life was that I don't have a family of my own. Then it dawned on me: That's not what I think; that's what married people think.

I love time with family and friends, but completely relish time on my own when I have no agenda to follow, no to-do's, just me and time alone.

I know there are a lot of kids who aren't lucky enough to have a father figure in their lives. That's a really tough obstacle to overcome.

Conservatives highlight the primacy of family and argue that family breakdown exacerbates poverty, and they're right. Children raised by single parents are three times as likely to live in poverty as kids in two-parent homes.