A history of marriage
By: Elizabeth Abbott
Publisher: Duckworth Overlook
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 460
ISBN-13: 9780715641705
Subjects: Marriage; History; Mariage; Histoire
Description: A History of Marriage paints an often surprising picture of this most public, yet most intimate, institution, a complex tradition that includes arranged marriages, dowries, same-sex marriages, self-marriages and child brides. The wedding ceremony, too, has worn many faces: 'spousals', common before the mid-twelfth century in western Europe, required no priest, but only the privately proclaimed consent of the couple; the iconic white wedding dress did not emerge until the late eighteenth century and not until Queen Victoria wore a lavish white gown in 1840 did it become truly fashionable.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Marriage in history. Husbands and wives: who were they? ; Learning marriage, rites of passage ; Weddings and the married state ; Love and sex in marriage ; Marriage from within four walls ; Go forth and multiply: children at the heart of marriage ; When things went wrong; title: Marriage in the present and future. Unmarried and often single ; A gay focus on the nature of marriage ; Children and parenting in modern marriages ; For richer or poorer: marriage and money ; Marriage and race ; Marriage policies ; Issues at the heart of the marriage debate; title: Epilogue: Stop sign.