Public vows
Subtitle: a history of marriage and the nation
By: Nancy F. Cott.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 297
ISBN-13: 9780674003200
Subjects: Marriage -- United States -- History; United States -- Social life and customs
Description: "We commonly think of marriage as a private matter between two people, a personal expression of love and commitment. In this history, Nancy F. Cott demonstrates that marriage is and always has been a public institution. From the founding of the United States to the present day, imperatives about the necessity of marriage and its proper form have been deeply embedded in national policy, law, and political rhetoric.

Legislators and judges have envisioned and enforced their preferred model of consensual, lifelong monogamy - a model derived from Christian tenets and the English common law, which posits the husband as provider and the wife as dependent."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: An archaeology of American monogamy; title: Perfecting community rules with state laws; title: Domestic relations on the national agenda; title: Toward a single standard; title: Monogamy as the law of social life; title: Consent, the American way; title: The modern architecture of marriage; title: Public sanctity for a private realm; title: Marriage revised and revived.