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9781107160262

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Advance praise: 'The belief that marriage as an institution is in crisis is nothing new, historian William Kuby shows us in this engaging study of early twentieth-century marital nonconformists who pushed boundaries by engaging in trial marriages, serial polygamy, or interracial marriage, among other challenges to the norm. But while 'queer' couples generated a conservative backlash, Conjugal Misconduct demonstrates that even perceived challenges to the institution of marriage could serve to reinforce its power and influence in American social life.' Renee Romano, Oberlin College, Ohio Advance praise: 'Conjugal Misconduct provides the definitive study of the 'amorphousness' of the institution of marriage between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nonconforming heterosexual couples pursued every angle to evade restrictive state laws, often crossing state lines to find a more lenient marital regime. Their acts of defiance reshaped marital legitimacy, while revealing that the law itself could not constrain conjugal choices. For anyone who still clings to notions of marriage's static, coherent past, this deftly written and deeply researched book proves that improvisation and even chaos shaped the legal history of heterosexual marriage.' Rebecca L. Davis, University of Delaware Advance praise: 'An informative and provocative account of how various groups and individuals have pushed to widen the definition and extend the benefits of marriage, often with unintended results.' Stephanie Coontz, Evergreen State College, and author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage

Author Information

William Kuby is a UC Foundation Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, where he directs the Africana Studies Program and teaches in the Women's Studies Program.

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