Great Expectations: Marriage and Divorce in Post-Victorian America

by May, Elaine

• ISBN13: 9780226511702
• ISBN10: 0226511707
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-02-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the divorce rate in the United States rose by a staggering 2,000 percent. To understand this dramatic rise, Elaine Tyler May studied over one thousand detailed divorce cases. She found that contrary to common assumptions, divorce was not simply a by-product of women's increasing economic and sexual independence, or a rebellion against marriage. Rather, thwarted hopes for fulfillment in the public sphere drove both men and women to wed at a greater rate and to bring higher expectations to their marriages.

Author Biography

Elaine Tyler May is a social historian at the University of Minnesota where she is professor of American studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Tradition in Transition in the Late Nineteenth Century

Los Angeles and the Victorian Synthesis

Early Divorce in the City of the Angels

The Home: From Sacrifice to Satisfaction

The Path to Modern Marriage

Matrimony Unveiled in the Early Twentieth Century

The Romantic Ideal in Crisis

Sex: Sin or Salvation

Wives at Work

The Pressure to Provide Epilogue: The Pursuit of Happiness

Appendix: Tables

Notes

Index

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