Foreword
In an era of rapid change during which knowledge and technology increases in staggering proportions, we know more about travel to the moon, the possibilities for stored memory in amino acids or of ecology than about human relationships; especially, marital relationships and the function of sexuality in and out of marriage are just now coming in for their share of scientific research.
Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists are becoming aware that marriage is also in a state of change. Profound changes in marriage also means change in the American family. The family, as it was known, traditionally, had roots in the soil, the small town or village, and was an extended family, consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles and the proverbial cousins by the dozens, but American mobility has changed all of that. Family units more often, now, consist of a man and a woman and their children, if there are children. It is interesting to note, that in spite of what is considered a population explosion the birth rate has declined, in the United States from 30.1 births per thousand in 1910 to 17.7 births per thousand in 1969.
- The Publishers