Conjugal misconduct : defying marriage law in the twentieth-century United States /
Reveals the hidden history of controversial and legally contested marital arrangements in twentieth-century America. William Kuby examines the experiences of couples in unconventional unions and the legal and cultural backlash generated by a wide array of 'alternative' marriages. These inc...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY :
Cambridge University Press,
2018.
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| Series: | Cambridge historical studies in American law and society.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Purchased as: Blank Rome LLP Alvin S. Ackerman Prize to Casey Klein, 2017. |
| Summary: | Reveals the hidden history of controversial and legally contested marital arrangements in twentieth-century America. William Kuby examines the experiences of couples in unconventional unions and the legal and cultural backlash generated by a wide array of 'alternative' marriages. These include marriages established through personal advertisements and matchmaking bureaus, marriages that defied state eugenic regulations, hasty marriages between divorced persons, provisional and temporary unions referred to as 'trial marriages', racial intermarriages, and a host of other unions that challenged sexual and marital norms. In illuminating the tensions between those who set marriage policies and those who defied them, Kuby offers a fresh account of marriage's contested history, arguing that although marital nonconformists composed only a small minority of the population, their atypical arrangements nonetheless shifted popular understandings of marriage and consistently refashioned the legal parameters of the institution. |
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| Physical Description: | xii, 296 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107160262 110716026X 9781316613368 1316613364 |