Chatham Community Library will host South Carolina author Marcia Zug presenting her second book You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love.   The program takes place in the Holmes Family Meeting Room on Saturday, March 23, from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.  

You'll Do takes a deep dive into the unromantic, but much more common than most would like to think, reasons for marrying throughout history.

Americans hold marriage in such high esteem that we push people toward it, reward them for taking part in it, and fetishize its benefits to the point that we routinely ignore or excuse bad behavior and societal ills in the name of protecting and promoting it.

Laws have been designed to encourage people to marry so that certain societal benefits could be achieved: the population would increase, women would have financial security, children would be cared for, and immigrants would have familial connections. 

The widely overlooked problem with this tradition is that individuals and society have relied on marriage to address or dismiss a range of injustices and inequities, from gender- and race-based discrimination, sexual violence, and predation to unequal financial treatment.

Through revealing storytelling, Zug builds a compelling case that when marriage is touted as “the solution” to such problems, it absolves the government, and society, of the responsibility for directly addressing them.

Marcia Zug is a family law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and The Yale Law School. Her previous book, Buying A Bride, explored the history of mail order marriage in the United States. She lives in Columbia, SC with her husband and two daughters.

This program is free and open to the public and made possible with the generous support of the Friends of the Chatham Community Library.

Residents may visit the libraries’ website www.chathamlibraries.org, or contact the Library at (919) 545-8084 for more information on this and other events and programs.

Members of the media interested in attending/covering this event are asked to please notify Public Information Officer Kara Lusk in advance at 919-542-8258 or kara.lusk@chathamcountync.gov.