Marriage in the Early Republic: Elizabeth and William Wirt and the Companionate Ideal (Gender Relations in the American Experience)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.67 (800 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0801858771 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 232 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-11-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Fascinating & unique vision of marriage in the past" according to A Customer. This book is a treasure to read. While sometimes overbearingly academic, Jabour has a crisp analytical style that makes us understand immediately the social relationship between the Wirts and its applicability to our own intimate relationships. Personal/analytical h
In Marriage in the Early Republic, Anya Jabour provides detailed analysis of a marital relationship so thoroughly documented that it illuminates gender relations in nineteenth-century America.On one level, this is a story--a rich narrative full of the joys, sorrows, tensions, and the give-and-take of an American marriage. But because changing gender roles and expectations in this period caused discordance and forced adjustments, Jabour also provides a microhistorical analysis of a broad pattern. By examining patterns of love and marriage in a formative era, Marriage in the Early Republic offers insights into romance and relationships in our own time as well.. Placing the Wirts' marriage in a larger context, she shows how problematic marriage--and the balancing of domestic and childcare responsibilities--could be as well-to-do Americans developed their own cultural and social expectations. William Wirt practiced law in Virginia and Maryland in the early national period and served as attorney general under James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. For more than three decades, the couple struggled to reconcile different daily pursuits with a commitment to marriage as a partnership of equals. Elizabeth Wirt managed the household and cared for the Wirts' large family during her husband's frequent work-related absences
"This book has much to offer students and scholars of the early republic, and of gender relations in the nineteenth century." -- Karin Wulf, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography"Clearly written and interpretively convincing. Dallett Hemphill, Journal of American History"A fascinating portrait of an intense, if sometimes rocky, relationship." -- Glenna Matthews, American Historical Review. The result is engaging but sobering, as the reader is forced to confront the frustrations produced by the tensions in a marriage that was regarded as a model, loving union by the couple and their contemporaries." -- C. Jabour's singular contribution lies in the wealth of richly textured detail through which the reader comes to understand marriage both as a social institution and as the lived experience of real people." -- Anne M.
Anya Jabour is an associate professor of history at the University of Montana.