The Obamas’ Working Marriage

Kristin Celello, author of Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States, responds to Michelle Obama’s interview with People magazine regarding her marriage to the President.

In a recent issue of People magazine, Michelle Obama does her best to dispel any notions that she and the President have a “perfect” marriage.  Rather, she insists: “I don’t want anybody to think that it’s easy. It works because we really work at it.”

With this revelation, the First Lady invoked a truism that has been a staple of American marriages for close to a hundred years: in order for a marriage to be successful or “to work,” you have to make a concerted effort or “work at it.”  What she might not know, however, is that this idea has a long history, one that is more complicated than most Americans realize.

Read the full article over at the History News Network.