Marriage and Morals quietly proposes a rational approach to sex and love: one based on the realities of need and desire, rather than on ancient tribal and religious tabus. Because it deals candidly with free love and trial marriage - always holding human happiness higher than venerable institutions - it has been the focus of bitter controversy and hysterical attack. Actually, this clear, unbiased look at morality is a small but integral part of the whole, lucid structure of Bertrand Russell's thought: simply one aspect of his lifelong opposition to restrictive dogma, his unshakable faith in the adequacy of man and the power of the human intellect.
