I’d also recommend the now infamous essay “Capitalism and Gay Identity” by John D’Emilio. Although it is not about the rise of the nuclear family specifically, in it he argues that with the introduction of widespread wage labor during the industrial revolution, and the development of major metropolises, people (particularly men, although later women too) suddenly had the ability to survive and thrive outside of large agrarian family units. This created greater freedom for people to live according to their chosen configurations of intimacy, and produced for the first time the possibility of a gay “lifestyle” as well as the notion of marriage based on love rather than material survival.

I am currently writing a master’s thesis on the modern day single’s movement and these are some of my sources.