Is Marriage for White People? is an enthralling book. Well written, it is not difficult to finish in a sitting or two. Its considerable strengths, however, come from the new things the reader finds on nearly every page. Sometimes the findings are facts; sometimes the cleverly excerpted statements from women Banks has interviewed. Even someone familiar with the general literature will make frequent discoveries; … his cogent analysis deserves the attention of all Americans. Many social ills flow directly from the lack of marriage, particularly as it affects children. But the idea that trends are set by black Americans and that, so far, the rest of the country has followed the decline of marriage and rise of nonmarital births, makes his warnings, as his subtitle notes, apply to all of us.

—Margaret F. Brinig, Associate Dean for Faculty Research Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law, author of Law, Family and Community: Supporting the Covenant (University of Chicago Press, 2010)