Let's Get Married - PBS Frontline Documentary by Alex Kotlowitz

Marriage is in trouble. Over the past half-century the number of single-parent households has skyrocketed to one-third of all U.S. families. The traditional American family structure appears to be crumbling.

President Bush and a growing marriage movement think it's time to take action. They are promoting marriage -- especially among the poor. Get people married, the thinking goes, and poverty will be reduced. Stem the tide of divorce and we'll solve many of society's ills. But is it that simple? Should the government have an activist role in personal relationships? And does marriage, in fact, really matter?

In "Let's Get Married," author and FRONTLINE correspondent Alex Kotlowitz explores these questions. "During my reporting, I became convinced that marriage, this most private of institutions, has very public consequences," Kotlowitz says. "And yet we have such a tough time talking about it. Why is that? This was kind of a personal journey for me -- an effort, in part, to answer that question -- and to figure out a way to talk about marriage and its critical place in our social framework."

"Let's Get Married" examines the social, political, and economic forces that have converged to advance the modern marriage movement -- an amalgam of Christian activists, political conservatives, and intellectuals.