Title Unfaithful : love, adultery, and marriage reform in nineteenth-century America / Carol Faulkner

Published Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019] ©2019

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Description 1 online resource (176 pages) : illustrations Series Haney Foundation series Haney Foundation series. Contents Introduction: The adultery metaphor -- Adultery as a sin and a crime -- Adultery as freedom from sin -- "Two kinds of adultery" -- "Legalized adultery" -- True vs. false marriage -- "His adultery is proved so clear" -- Adultery among the free lovers -- Feminists and the marriage question -- Adultery as social protest -- Adultery as civil disobedience -- Epilogue Summary "Between 1830 and 1880, an array of activists viewed the legal, social, and cultural institution of marriage as an obstacle to a more equitable society. Early feminists identified the question of marital rights as equally important to political rights. Other reformers deemed the marriage question more fundamental to the transformation of women's status. The most radical activists, known as free lovers, demanded an end to the constraints of legal marriage. They argued that individuals had a right to choose when and whom they loved, advocating a form of serial monogamy. More moderate marriage reformers, including women's rights activists and spiritualists, believed that love, choice, and happiness were essential to marriage. When marriages failed, they advocated liberal access to divorce. These activists differed in their attitudes toward legal marriage, insofar as the moderates still had faith in the institution, but they shared the fundamental insight that marriage should be a voluntary, loving relationship, and used variations on the idea of adultery to convey wrongs and harms within the legal bond of a marriage"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Adultery -- United States -- History -- 19th century Love -- United States -- History -- 19th century Man-woman relationships -- United States -- History -- 19th century Marriage -- United States -- History -- 19th century Women's rights -- United States -- History -- 19th century Adultery Love Man-woman relationships Marriage Women's rights United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 0812296796 9780812296792

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