| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. By Nancy F. Cott. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. vi, 297 pp. $27.95, ISBN 0-674-00320-9.)

Nancy F. Cott's sweeping history of the legal and political institution of marriage in the United States argues convincingly that marriage laws have both shaped and reflected the meaning of citizenship and that of the nation itself. Cott demonstrates that, far from simply providing private unions with state sanction, marriage laws have determined spousal rights and responsibilities, specified who is allowed to marry whom, and defined which unions are legitimate in the public eye. Through its promotion and enforcement of a particular form of heterosexual lifelong monogamy, the government has reinforced gender and racial hierarchies, restricted and controlled immigration, structured economic relations, and conferred civic benefits and privileges. Marriage laws and marital status are embedded in public policies that control immigration, access to citizenship, military service, tax policies, property ownership, welfare, sexuality, and reproduction. 1

Public Vows traces the history of marriage in the United States from its roots in Christian monogamy, which formed the basis of the political theory of marriage held by the nation's founders. As Cott points out, that model represented one among many forms of marriage prevailing in the world at the time and was typical of only a relatively small proportion of the world's inhabitants. Believing that Christian monogamy was essential for "civilization," the founders grounded the structure of the democracy on this marital model. . . .

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