Until Choice Do Us Part by Clare Virginia Eby
For centuries, people have been thinking and writing - and fiercely debating - about the meaning of marriage. Today, politicians speak often of "defending" or "protecting" this institution, but just a hundred years ago, Progressive-era reformers embraced marriage not as a time-honored repository for conservative values, but as a tool for social change. In Until Choice Do Us Part, Clare Virginia Eby offers a new account of marriage as it appeared in fiction, journalism, legal decisions, scholarly work, and private correspondence at the start of the twentieth century. Beginning with reformers like sexologist Havelock Ellis and anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons-who argued that spouses should be "class equals" joined by private affection, not public sanction - Eby guides us through the stories of three literary couples - Upton and Meta Fuller Sinclair, Theodore and Sara White Dreiser, and Neith Boyce and Hutchins Hapgood - who sought to reform marriage in their lives and in their writings, with mixed results. With this focus on the intimate side of married life, Eby gives readers a view into a historical moment that changed the nature of American marriage-and which continues to shape marital norms today.
"In this fascinating and timely study, Clare Virginia Eby shines in her ability to brings us closer to the emotional and cultural aspects of the Progressive era, and her argument for marriage as a laboratory is extremely compellingUntil Choice Do Us Part will make a terrific addition to seminars on women and gender history, family history, and the history of sexuality-not to mention a number of other disciplines." (Jennifer Fronc, author of New York Undercover)"
Clare Virginia Eby is professor of English at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Dreiser and Veblen, Saboteurs of the Status Quo and an editor of The Cambridge History of the American Novel.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780226085838 |
| ISBN 10 | 022608583X |
| Title | Until Choice Do Us Part |
| Author | Clare Virginia Eby |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
| Year published | 2014-01-06 |
| Number of pages | 264 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |