Until Choice Do Us Part
Marriage Reform in the Progressive Era
256 pages
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12 halftones
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6 x 9
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© 2013
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 an historical moment that changed the nature of American marriage—and which continues to shape marital norms today.
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 an historical moment that changed the nature of American marriage—and which continues to shape marital norms today.
Jennifer Fronc | author of New York Undercover: Private Surveillance in the Progressive Era
“In this fascinating and timely study, Clare Eby shines in her ability to bring us closer to the emotional and cultural aspects of the Progressive Era, and her argument for marriage as a laboratory is extremely compelling. Until 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.”
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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History: American History
Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature
Sociology: Social History
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