Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
"Not Marriage at All, but Simple Harlotry": The Companionate Marriage Controversy. |
| Authors: |
Davis, Rebecca L.1 (AUTHOR) rldavis@udel.edu |
| Source: |
Journal of American History. Mar2008, Vol. 94 Issue 4, p1137-1163. 27p. |
| Subject Terms: |
Companionate marriage, Middle class, Conservatism |
| Geographic Terms: |
United States |
| Reviews & Products: |
Companionate Marriage, The (Book) |
| People: |
Lindsey, Ben B. |
| Abstract: |
The author shows that rather than characterizing an accepted social ideal, the term "companionate marriage" provoked widespread outrage in the U.S. By focusing on how the term was popularized and interpreted following the publication of Judge Ben B. Lindsey's book "The Companionate Marriage" in 1927, she shows how the era's anticommunist politics, gender conservatism, and religious tensions constrained companionate marriage's meanings and limited its reformist scope. Debates over what companionate marriage implied contributed to a rhetorical tradition that links marital reform to godless, antidemocratic radicalism. The term was counted to describe a transformation in the social and economic functions of marriage for middle class. |
| Database: |
Education Research Complete |
