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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Nancy Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000) |
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MARRIAGE is an institution in which every American has a personal connection. Whether the experience has been as participant or observer, traditional or unconventional, positive or negative, this personal connection informs one's understanding of the institution. Meaning appears to be largely created through these private experiences; but as Nancy Cott's research illustrates, marriage is not just private, it is a public institution with important implications for American society. In Public Vows: A History and the Nation, Cott carefully mines the familiar sources of some of the greatest events in American history to unearth fresh information about the role of marriage as a public institution. |
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Public Vows is roughly organized along a chronological framework, with Cott methodically analyzing public policy, law, and political rhetoric throughout the eras to understand the role that marriage played in the public realm. This analysis ambitiously works through the history of the American nation highlighting events and trends such as the War of Independence, the building of the nation, the Civil War, immigration, technological advances, the Great Depression, World War II, and various social changes over the last half of the 20th century. The author skillfully weaves the historical narrative together with the issues such as race, gender, and religion to reveal the complex relationship between marriage and public order. The findings reveal that marriage is inextricably intertwined with American citizenship. Cott argues that the marital contract was structured to define who belonged to the nation and to lend legitimacy to the ruling order. The contract, which included consensual life-long monogamy, was culturally rooted in Christian influence and English common law. Cott argues that marriage could be used as a tool to keep those who did not conform to the model such as Native Americans, slaves (later ex-slaves), and Mormons on the periphery of American society until they "chose" to conform to the dominant model. |
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Cott argues that the public importance of marriage shifted from citizenship issues to economic issues around the turn of the 20th century. The reasons for this shift were that as the 20th century wore on, the state became increasingly involved with the everyday lives of citizens through schooling, taxation, and employment. According to Cott, this meant that the state no longer needed marriage to control the populace. Instead, the dominant marital issue became economic. Marriage was one way "to stabilize the essential activities of sex and labor and their consequence, children and property" so that they did not become a drain on state resources. (6) |
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Great ambition and intellectual rigour were required to intertwine the broad historical scope, the wide-ranging research, and the complex and divergent themes of this project. The results of this mammoth study have been an important contribution to our understanding of marriage, as well as to the study of the family, citizenship, the state, public policy, and political history. Public Vows also makes a significant contribution to these areas by raising new questions for study. As an overview study, it lays the ground for more specific studies on marriage as a public institution. |
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The issue of how much the public role of marriage was political rhetoric and how much it was a reflection of realistic circumstances is one of the first questions that is raised when reading this work. For example, there were couples who did not conform to the marital model, such as those who lived in "common-law" or participated in extra-marital affairs, yet they were still citizens. This suggests that conformity to the state's ideals of marriage was not de facto, so how powerful was the role of marriage in defining citizenship? More specific studies that explore the intersection of marriage and citizenship with factors such as race, class, and gender would help to place the role of marriage and citizenship into a broader context. |
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Another area in need of fleshing out is the interaction of the public and private realms of marriage. These cannot be separated, as there is a constant interplay between the two, which, results in an evolving synthesis that defines the institution. If we are to understand marriage, we must look at its whole. Cott is aware of this, although it is not the object of her study, and she suggests some starting points in the introduction. |
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With future research projects it would be worthwhile to reexamine the emphasis on change over time and explore the continuity of the public institution of marriage. A very distinct break occurs in the book when the 20th century is discussed. It is then that Cott argues that the political and moral usefulness of marriage gave way to a public emphasis on the economic significance of the institution. The study is then brought to the present by declaring that an emphasis on the individual rights and freedoms has toppled marriage as "the preeminent pillar of the state." (199) These changes do appear in the law and the political rhetoric, but to what extent did the public role of marriage really change? Certainly the economic role of marriage in the earlier period was significant to its public role, and as Cott recognizes in the final chapter, marriage still appears in the present day as having political and moral significance. Marriage was appealed to as nationally significant in the political rhetoric as recently as 2001. On the 11 October 2001, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, President Bush claimed that "Many people are reassessing what's important in life. Moms and dads are not only reassessing their marriage and the importance of their marriage, but of the necessity of loving their children like never before." This connection between marriage, parenting, and children takes on a citizenship element when the same address claims that the attacks on Americans have gone a long ways towards helping "parents develop good character in their children and to strengthen the spirit of citizenship and service to our communities." Although the emphasis in political rhetoric and law may shift, there is much continuity in the public role of marriage in the US. Marriage is explained as an institution that "prescribes duties and dispenses privileges," (2) and although the emphasis on these duties and privileges does change, significantly there is still much that is consistent. |
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Marriage is a multi-faceted topic, with extensive implications for the political, economic, religious, and social realities of the society in which it is practiced. Nancy Cott has courageously undertaken an exploration of these diverse implications and has been successful in illustrating the important public role that marriage has played in American society. Public Vows is sure to inspire many other studies that explore marriage as a public institution. Incorporating this perspective is critical for an understanding of how marriage has come to be understood and practiced. Anyone interested in marriage will greatly benefit from reading this study. |
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Janay Nugent
University of Guelph
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