{"product_id":"man-and-wife-in-america-a-history-9780674002623","title":"Man and Wife in America: A History","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn nineteenth-century America  the law insisted that marriage was a permanent relationship defined by the husbands authority and the wifes dependence. Yet at the same time the law created the means to escape that relationship. How was this possible? And how did wives and husbands experience marriage within that legal regime? These are the complexities that Hendrik Hartog plumbs in a study of the powers of law and its limits. Exploring a century and a half of marriage through stories of struggle and conflict mined from case records  Hartog shatters the myth of a golden age of stable marriage. He describes the myriad ways the law shaped and defined marital relations and spousal identities  and how individuals manipulated and reshaped the rules of the American states to fit their needs. We witness a compelling cast of characters: wives who attempted to leave abusive husbands  women who manipulated their marital status for personal advantage  accidental and intentional bigamists  men who killed their wives lovers  couples who insisted on divorce in a legal culture that denied them that right. As we watch and listen to these men and women  enmeshed in law and escaping from marriages  we catch reflected images both of ourselves and our parents  of our desires and our anxieties about marriage. Hartog shows how our own conflicts and confusions about marital roles and identities are rooted in the history of marriage and the legal struggles that defined and transformed it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648170876981,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674002628","price":31.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/man-and-wife-in-america-a-history-9780674002623","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}