| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 160 words from this article are provided below; about 341 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Man and Wife in America: A History. By Hendrik Hartog. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. viii, 408 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-674-00262-8.)

This important book—the most provocative and compelling volume yet written on the history of American marriage—challenges the view that marriage's legal history should be understood as a story of progress, in which a hierarchical, patriarchal conception of marriage gives way to a contractual, egalitarian conception; or, conversely, as a story of decline, in which an individualistic, rights-centered legal discourse supplants an ideology of marital permanence. Instead of viewing marriage's legal history as the story of women's emergent rights—of the slow recognition of a wife's right to child custody, separate property and earnings, and an independent legal identity—or of a movement from permanence to easy divorce, it charts a very different and much more morally ambiguous tale involving the demise of an older legal language that defined distinctive rights, duties, immunities, and expectations for husbands and wives. . . .

There are about 341 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.