I am almost never speak on the family without mentioning Rick Banks’ book. It is an unflinching look at what has happened to the marital prospects of middle class African-American women whose achievements outpace those of the men around them. Banks writes to dismantle the color line defining acceptable partners but the book also serves as a wake-up call for the rest of us. If marriage is to thrive, our expectations about ourselves and our partners will almost certainly have to change.

—June Carbone is the Edward A. Smith/Missouri Chair of Law, the Constitution and Society Professor at the University of Missouri, and the coauthor of Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture (Oxford University Press, 2010.)