Divorce: An American Tradition [Paperback]

Glenda Riley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 1997

According to Glenda Riley, “the historical conflict between anti-divorce and pro-divorce factions has prevented the development of effective, beneficial divorce laws, procedures, and policies. Today we still lack processes that move spouses out of unworkable marriages in a constructive fashion and get them back into the mainstream of life in a stable, productive condition.” Her pioneering historical overview offers proposals for dealing with a subject that now pertains to nearly half of all marriages.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A tedious history of divorce in the US from Puritan--yes, Puritan--times. Riley (History/Univ. of Northern Iowa) is the author of several scholarly books on frontier women. Her earlier research must have turned up anecdotal material on frontier divorces that led her to compile this volume. Unfortunately, with a bibliography and footnotes that are virtually 25% of the book, it is little more than a compilation of statutes, statistics, and rather dry excerpts from court records. Records do go back before the Declaration of Independence (a ``divorce petition of great magnitude,'' she notes) to the early 1600's and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As the frontier moved west, the percentage of divorces increased, to one divorce in 15 marriages by 1888. Calls for reform came both from those who wanted to make divorce more difficult and those who wanted to make it easier. Divorces continued to escalate until today, when half of US marriages end in divorce. A rather eloquent epilogue recommends that Americans accept the fact of divorce and lend their efforts both to learning more about marriage and easing the aftereffects of divorce on spouses and children. Informative, but Riley should have made the central text as readable as the epilogue. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“[A] thoroughgoing and thoroughly intelligent study . . . All those tempted to join the new crusade against divorce should be required to read Divorce: An American Tradition cover to cover and pencil in hand. They may be forced to conclude, along with many of our ancestors, that divorce is indeed a great evil and source of much suffering. But then so is the institution that generates it—marriage, especially marriage under conditions of gross inequality between the sexes.”—New York Times Book Review

(New York Times Book Review )

No one has so carefully researched this subject before or written so intelligently about it.”—Chicago Tribune

(Chicago Tribune )

“Well researched and very readable . . . [Riley] leaves her readers with suggestions for future divorce policy, calling for a more sensitive and humane approach in the practice of this centuries-old social and legal institution.”—American Historical Review

(American Historical Review )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (July 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803289693
• ISBN-13: 978-0803289697
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,737,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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