How have our attitudes toward marriage changed?

I. . .Do? Why Marriage Still Matters
A book by Cardus Family Program Director Peter Jon Mitchell and Cardus Senior Fellow Andrea Mrozek
Today, marriage is often seen as a private affair between two people, focused on happiness and personal fulfillment. But what if marriage holds a much deeper purpose? What if it’s not just about the couple, but about the good of society as a whole?
In “I . . . Do? Why Marriage Still Matters”, Cardus Family Program Director Peter Jon Mitchell and Cardus Senior Fellow Andrea Mrozek offer a bold reimagining of marriage’s role in a pluralistic society. You can buy the book right here.
Peter Jon and Andrea challenge the cultural shift that has devalued this ancient institution. They argue that marriage is a public good—a cornerstone for individual well-being and community flourishing. Drawing on compelling research, they highlight how strong marriages promote health, happiness, and stability, not just for couples but for everyone around them.
Through engaging analysis and practical insights, the book reveals how modern misconceptions about marriage have weakened its social value. Peter Jon and Andrea connect the dots between the breakdown of marriage culture, rising public policy challenges, and the ripple effects felt across communities.
But this is not a lament—it’s a hopeful call to action. I . . . Do? equips readers with a fresh perspective and the tools to reclaim the importance of marriage in their personal lives and broader society. By rediscovering the meaning and potential of marriage, we can build stronger relationships and a more vibrant culture where everyone benefits.
This is a must-read for anyone passionate about relationships, community renewal, and the future of a flourishing society.
Read the Endorsements
“The temptation today is to see marriage as a private affair that matters only for the two adults involved, but in this powerful new book, Mrozek and Mitchell show all the ways in which marriage is also a public good whose health matters not just for men and women but also for children and the wider community. I . . . Do? combines timely insights regarding the contemporary value of our most important institution with a compelling call to revive its fortunes.”
—Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology, and director, National Marriage Project, University of Virginia
“My Cardus colleagues convincingly show that marriage matters—even for those who are not married or consider marriage a relic of a bygone religious age. The social science data prove that everything we care about gets better when marriages are healthy. The wisdom of the ages is vindicated here by able scholars who rely on research, not revelation, to make their case.”
—Raymond J. de Souza, contributor, National Post, and senior fellow, Cardus
“There is plenty of social-scientific data to make the case for marriage. From Daniel Patrick Moynahan to Thomas Sowell and on to Charles Murray, all showed what happens when families fracture en masse— entire neighborhoods and even nations come apart. Beyond that data—also in I . . . Do?—this book’s most important contribution reminds us that marriage can be a shelter from life’s inevitable storms and also a marvelous partnership with sublime joy on the journey between life’s valleys and peaks.”
—Mark Milke, president, The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy
“We know that marriage, for millennia an unassailable cultural norm, is good for individuals and for society, yet within decades it has become an institution in serious decline. We are in the midst of an existential social crisis that has not been acknowledged or addressed in Canada’s public forum. In this scrupulously objective, gently polemical treatment of their subject, Andrea Mrozek and Peter Jon Mitchell defend the importance of marriage against its myriad challenges, promoting its benefits with tact, thoughtfulness, and sincerity.”
—Barbara Kay, opinion columnist, National Post
“Marriage is not simply a ‘lifestyle choice’ or a useful social engineering tool. It is a primordial institution that speaks to our deepest needs, which is why it also does matter so much to happy individuals and happy societies. In this book, Andrea Mrozek and Peter Jon Mitchell provide a calm, balanced and thoughtful introduction to its nature, meaning and lasting importance.”
—John Robson, executive director, Climate Discussion Nexus
“Who cares about marriage? Just a few decades ago, it was the norm that if you had kids you were married. Today marriage, for many, has become nice but unnecessary. Andrea Mrozek and Peter Jon Mitchell expertly lay out the case for why marriage influences almost every social outcome that you might care to mention. Read this and find out why all of us should care about marriage.”
—Harry Benson, research director, Marriage Foundation, United Kingdom
“What might a healthy marriage culture look like in a post-Christian society? A much-needed reassessment of the fruits of the sexual revolution has finally begun, and with it, a revaluation of the place and importance marriage in society. I . . . Do? by Andrea Mrozek and Peter Jon Mitchell is an essential addition to a growing genre that includes recent books such as The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry, Feminism Against Progress by Mary Harrington, The Rights of Women by Erika Bachiochi, and Get Married by Brad Wilcox. With sociological data, personal anecdotes, and policy prescriptions, Mrozek and Mitchell make a compelling, non-religious and must-read pitch.”
—Jonathon Van Maren, author of The Culture War
“If institutions are social technologies that enable humans to thrive, then marriage is something like a vaccine: not strictly necessary for personal or social survival, but extremely helpful at the individual level and critical at the collective level. In this thoughtful, authoritative survey of recent developments, debates, and research about modern marriage, Mrozek and Mitchell demonstrate how all of us—young or old, religious or secular, gay or straight, married or not—benefit from a culture with matrimony at its center.”
—Kelden Formosa, elementary school teacher, and writer, The Hub