Great Expectations: Marriage and Divorce in Post-Victorian America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226511702)

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the divorce rate in the United States rose by a staggering 2,000 percent. To understand this dramatic rise, Elaine Tyler May studied over one thousand detailed divorce cases. She found that contrary to common assumptions, divorce was not simply a by-product of women's increasing economic and sexual independence, or a rebellion against marriage. Rather, thwarted hopes for fulfillment in the public sphere drove both men and women to wed at a greater rate and to bring higher expectations to their marriages.


Author: Elaine Tyler May
ISBN-10: 0226511707
ISBN-13: 9780226511702
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 02/15/1983
Pages: 208
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.54h x 5.41w x 0.48d