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Title: Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation by Nancy F. Cott ISBN: 0-674-00875-8 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Strong, Detailed Historical Discussion
Comment: Although the institution of "marriage" among humans is generally considered to be thousands of years old, it has a much shorter history as a public insitution in the United States. Nancy Cott's book dives straight into the history of marriage in the U.S., from early societal attitudes and government regulation during the push westward to later government attempts to reign in those with differing sexual mores throughout the 18th century. Her discusison of the state of marriage in the 20th century is equally revealing.
Nancy weaves a tale with many facts that few people are probably aware of: that marriage was frequently unregulated in early America, that divorce was relatively common (but frowned upon), and that religious and utopian communities were challenging the status quo of marriage and state control of the institution from very early on in our nation's history. She makes the best case I've ever heard for proving that marriage is a public institution subject to the will of the state and men in power, transformed and changed over decades by government, often for purposes of exercising control over the population (especially women) and for imposing on the nation the perceived natural order of things.
Marriage may be ancient in origin, but Nancy Cott does an excellent job in the end of showing that "marriage" in the U.S. did not simply grow organically from these ancient traditions, and that government is capable of altering the institution for its own purposes as it sees fit, regardless of what might truly best for society or the individuals in it. While Cott does not explore the impact of her findings on same-sex marriage in great detail, it is very enlightening to understand that debate in light of the changes in marital law over the past 200 years that Cott cleverly elucidates for the reader. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of the institution of civil marriage in the United States.
Rating: 5
Summary: ok
Comment: This book doesn't say anything that most don't already know, that marriage is a form of public institution. The goodness of this book comes from that fact that most people can't really explain exactly how or why marriage is a public institution, and if they can there arguments are short and unsupported. Cott gives us tons of strong evidence and supports her arguments with alot of outside sources, so that the reader can get a real understanding. Of course with all books, there is some bias on the part of the author, but the reader doesn't have to agree with Cott in order to get something out of this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Utterly mind boggling and excellent
Comment: Just shy of 300 pages and 9 Chapters that cover An Archaeology of American Monogamy; Perfecting Community Rules with State Laws; Domestic Relations on the National Agenda; Toward a Single Standard; Monogamy as the Law of Social Life; Consent, the American way; The Modern Architecture of Marriage; Public Sanctity for a Private Realm; and Marriage Revised and Revived.
As the author notes Mae West had the best quote about marriage when she said "Marriage is a great institution ... but I ain't ready for an institution yet". But it is the rich historical facts she shares that provide great insight into the deep misogynist roots of marriage and how it was usually and in some cases still is a contract a man has with a woman. This is why I have always seen marriage as nothing more that legalized prostitution and a protection of material wealth.
The author shows how Protestants and to some degree Catholics have decreed what marriage should be as well as how strong men and women have risen up over the decades and even centuries to denounce attempts to regulate whom they could have sex with and attempts to require that people marry to have sex, own property in common.
The books discusses Americas racist and sexist history with marriage and how some politicians were as eugenic minded as well. And how the rich were and have always been given the slight nudge and wink to do damn well what they want which included having lovers. The hypocrisy of American marriage laws.
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Title: Man and Wife in America: A History by Hendrik Hartog ISBN: 0674008111 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: What Is Marriage For? by E. J. Graff ISBN: 0807041157 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 09 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: A History of the Wife by Marilyn Yalom ISBN: 0060193387 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: No Constitutional Right to be Ladies : Women and the Obligations of Citizenship by Linda K. Kerber ISBN: 0809073846 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the Female Reform Tradition by Estelle B. Freedman ISBN: 0226261492 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
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