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State of the Marital Union

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State of the Marital Union

Name: State of the Marital Union
Author: Leslie J. Harris
ISBN: 9781481300513

Rhetoric, Identity, and Nineteenth-Century Marriage Controversies

by Leslie J. Harris

Published by: Baylor University Press

Imprint: Baylor University Press

From Private Wife to Public Woman

Sales Date: Monday, 30th Jun 2014

Hardcover
ISBN 9781481300513
223 Pages

$34.99

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ISBN 9781481302739
223 Pages

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ISBN 9781481300537
223 Pages

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ISBN 9781481302746
223 Pages

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Description
Contents
Authors

State of the Marital Union documents the transformations of public identity occurring in American society through a close examination of the rhetoric used in nineteenth-century marriage controversies. Leslie J. Harris argues that American citizenship is, in part, rhetorically constituted through marriage.

The public debates over seemingly distinct marriage controversies, such as domestic violence, divorce, polygamy, free love, and interracial marriage, functioned as ways of both challenging and solidifying norms of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. Public sentiment operated as a lens for understanding some of the most heated public issues of the time, including slavery, westward expansion, women's rights, and immigration. Harris demonstrates how the private wife became the public woman by contesting legal standing in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.

State of the Marital Union makes the case that marriage is a critical site for constituting and performing ways of being in the American public, which has significant implications for understanding both female roles and the body politic.

Introduction: Marriage and the Nation

1 Abuse, Murder, and Discipline in Marriage

2 Constituting the Divorced Citizen and Saving the Nation

3 Polygamy and the Relics of Barbarism

4 Free Love, Licentiousness, and Civic Identity

5 Miscegenation and the Future of Civilization

Conclusion: State of the (Marital) Union

Leslie J. Harris is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

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State of the Marital Union

Rhetoric, Identity, and Nineteenth-Century Marriage Controversies