Coontz studies the history of American families, marriage, and changes in gender roles. Her book "The Way We Never Were" argues against several common myths about families of the past, including the idea that the 1950s family was traditional or the notion that families used to rely solely on their own resources. Her book, "Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage", traces the history of marriage from Anthony and Cleopatra (not a love story, she argues) to debates over same-sex marriage. Her newest book, about the wives and daughters of "The Greatest Generation," is "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s."