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Home » New Book: State of the Marital Union

New Book: State of the Marital Union

October 28, 2014

State-of-Marital-Union_PMS-3005-200x300

(by Leslie J. Harris)

Leslie J. Harris (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) announces the recent publication of her book “State of the Marital Union: Rhetoric, Identity, and Nineteenth-Century Marriage Controversies” (Baylor University Press, Cloth, July, 2014).

 “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. To learn more about the book, please visit the Baylor University Press website here. Link: http://www.baylorpress.com/Book/421/State_of_the_Marital_Union.html

Filed Under: Member Publications Tagged With: Books

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The Western Association of Women Historians was founded in 1969 to promote the interests of women historians both in academic settings and in the field of history generally. The WAWH is the largest of the regional women's historical associations in the United States. Although the majority of our members come from the Western United States, we have members from across the United States, Canada, and other countries and encourage people from any geographic area to join and participate in the organization. The WAWH … Read more

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The WAWH publishes The Networker, a newsletter that serves as the primary means of communication between the board and the membership. Published quarterly (with Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter issues), it contains regular news of members, information about jobs, awards, calls for papers, and resources, reports by graduate … Read more

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