"Anyone who imagines social
lament over divorce to be a very
recent phenomenon should read
Norma Basch's book, which tells a
fascinating set of stories about law
and about culture in the United
States, from the forging of divorce
provision in the Revolutionary era to
the moral ambiguities
and acknowledged hypocrisies it caused a century later. Tacking between the social facts of rising divorce and the alarmed or enthusiastic commentary on it, Framing American Divorce guides us through the social landscape of nineteenth-century America, a tour of shifting hierarchies in which anxieties about increasing personal freedom were as powerful as desires for it." --Nancy Cott, author of The Grounding of Modern Feminism
"A careful, fascinating study of divorce in nineteenth-century America, which penetrates its legal logic, its diverse passions, and its prurient appeal." --Joyce Appleby, coauthor of Telling the Truth about History
"In a pathbreaking study that
situates legal history in the larger social and
cultural context of nineteenth-century
America, Framing American Divorce transforms
our understanding of the sexual and social contract that has
defined our most intimate relations. Executed
with a singular power and persuasiuveness,
Basch's narrative is a compelling rereading of the
past that has resonance for the present.
--Mary C. Kelley, Dartmouth College
Divorce has become one of the most
widely discussed issues in America. In this innovative
exploration of the phenomenon of divorce in American society,
Norma Basch uses a
variety of analytic perspectives to enrich our understanding of
the
meaning of divorce during the formative years
of both the nation and its law, roughly
1770 to 1870. She provides a fascinating, thoughtful look at
divorce as a legal
action, as an individual experience, and as a cultural symbol in
its era of
institutionalization and traces the powerful
legacy of the first American divorce experiences
for us today.
Using a unique methodology, Basch fragments her story into three discrete but chronologically overlapping perspectives. In Part I, "Rules," she analyzes the changing legal and legislative aspects of divorce and the public response to them. Part II, "Mediations," focuses on individual cases and presents a close-up analysis of the way ordinary women and men tested the law in the courts. And Part III, "Representations," charts the spiraling imagery of divorce through various fiction and non-fiction narratives that made their way into American popular culture during the nineteenth century.
The composite picture that emerges in Framing American Divorce is a vividly untidy one that exposes the gulf between legal and moral abstractions and everyday practices. Divorce, Basch argues, was always a focal point of conflict between the autonomy of women and the authority of men. Tracing the legal, social, and cultural experience of divorce allows Basch to provide a searching exploration of the limits of nineteenth-century ideals of domesticity, romantic love, and marriage, and their legacy for us today. She brings her findings up-to-date with a provocative discussion of the current debate over fault or no-fault divorce.
Norma Basch is Professor of History at Rutgers University, Newark, and the author of In the Eyes of the Law: Women, Marriage, and Property in Nineteenth-Century New York (1982).
Published: Spring 1999
258 6 x 9 8 b/w illustrations
ISBN (Cloth): 0-520-21490-0
Buy Book (Cloth): $29.95
October 3, 2000