Course Schedule

Part I: Expectations and Historical Questions

August 30: Defining Marriage, Defining History

Introduction to electronic resources needed for course

reading:

  • Schedule and other Information on the website.
  • Enough info about the bibliographic software Zotero and Endnote to decide whether you want to use one of these tools to help you take notes.

assignment:

  • Question Sheet about your expectations of marriage, if not filled out in class.
  • Please up-date your OnCourse Profile to include your photo, email, major, and year. Comments that tell the class about your interests are also encouraged.
  • Decide on the note-taking strategy that you are going to use.

September 6: Why study the history of marriage?

Please click the following link for detailed information about the Position Paper, Peer Review, and Discussion Leading Assignments.

Announcement from Sept. 2: Please check your IU email account for announcements about this class sent through OnCourse. If you are not receiving them, please let the instructor know by emailing marriage@indiana.edu.

 

reading:

Writers:

Reviewers:

Emma Young Scott Lillard, Whitney Moore
Lizzie Cowan  
Andrew McKean  
   

 

Questions to Think About:

Schedule:

  • After reviewing the course schedule, assignments and policies on line, what questions do you have about how we will proceed?
  • What aspects of the course sound most interesting? Which ones make you uneasy?

Understanding the Reading:

For each of the assigned authors (Coontz, Cott and Shammas), please think about the following:

  • Before you begin reading, look at the chapter headings and any brief introductory information you can find. In your own words, what would you say the book is about?
  • What kind of books are these? Are they primary or secondary sources? Who is the intended audience for each?
  • What time period do these books cover? When does the historian start her story? And when does it end? Within this time frame, what periods does she pick out as particularly important turning points? (You will be able to answer this question with greater precision of you scan the first and last pages of each of Shammas and Cott's chapters. Note any dates, terms or events you would like defined or clarified.)
  • What is the "thesis statement" for the book?
  • What are some of the questions the historian is trying to answer?

Questions to Write About:

  1. Why should we study the history of marriage? What reasons do the authors give? Which of these do you find most compelling and why?
  2. What do these historians think distinguishes marriage today from marriage in the past? Which of these changes over time seems most significant to you, and what do we need to study to understand how it occurred?

Part II: Patriarchy, Race and Revolution

September 13: Patriarchy, Social Order and Agency

reading:

 

September 18: Marriage and the American Revolution

Reading:

Personal Letters:

Letters in Fiction:

  • Hannah Webster Foster and Cathy N. Davidson. The Coquette. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Especially Introduction and Letters V, XII, XXIII, XXVI, XXVIII-XXX, XXXII-XXXVII, XL-XLIII, LIII-LV, and LXV-LXXIV.

Newspaper desertion notices and responses:

  • John & Eunice Davis, New Hampshire Gazette, August 29, 1760; July 30, August 6, 1762.
  • George Livingston, Virginia Gazette (Rind), April 6, 1769.
  • Samuel Smith, Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), October 3, 1767 and December 13, 1770.
  • Anne Slaughter, Virginia Gazette (Rind), December 9, 1773.
  • Samuel Huggins, Pennsylvania Gazette, 1784-1797

Newspaper commentary on Marriage:

  • "The GOOD WIFE. & The GOOD HUSBAND," Virginia Gazette (Purdie), January 21, 1773.
  • Timothy Foresight, "Mr. Crier…," The Independent Chronicle, Boston, June 15, 1786.
  • "Essential rights and duties which belong to women," Weekly Museum, New York, March 16 1793.

Marriage Law:

  • Postion Papers

 

September 27: Historians on Marriage and the American Revolution

Reading:

October 4: Marriage and Nineteenth Century U.S. History

Primary Source Evalution Due.
Please post to OnCourse before class, and bring a paper copy.

reading:

 

October 11: Divorce and  Marriage Reform

reading

And one of the following:

 

  • Writers:

    Reviewers:

    Susan Peltz Michael Harris
    Tali Schussler Daniela Madiol
    Alex Gettelfinger Meredith Huffman

     

     

 

October 18: Why Monogamy?

Optional primary sources on polygamy:

Optional (recommended for those interested in writing on marriage, race & civilization):

  • Shammas,  Household Government, Chapter 1 (1-23), Chapter 5 (108-144) and related notes pp. 213-219. 
  • Palmer, B. M. (Benjamin Morgan), 1818-1902. The family in its civil and churchly aspects: an essay in two parts. Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1876. Chapters 1-3, 6-8.

    Writers:

    Reviewers:

       
    Meredith Huffman Mandy Gallimore
    Lisa Sarnowski Emma Young
       

Part III: Inventing Modern Marriage

October 25: Inventing Modern Marriage

Research Paper Proposal and Bibliography Due

Please post to OnCourse before class, and bring a paper copy.

reading:

November 1: Marriage Across the Color Line

reading:

  • Reading Guide/Paper Questions
  • Position Papers
  • Renee Romano. Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003. Please read the Prologue, Chapters 1, 4,5,6, and the Epilogue in their entirety. Read at least the introductory and concluding sections of chapters 2,3,7, and 8. You are encouraged to try to read the whole book.
  • Postion Papers
  • Writers:

    Reviewers:

      Jonathan Williams
    Daniela Madiol Susan Peltz
      Shauna Pauszek
       

November 8: History and the Gay Marriage Debate

reading:

At least one of the following:

For up-to-date information on legal activities relevant to gay marriage, see the Human Rights Campaign web page on Marriage Recognition.

Position Papers:

  1. Meredith Huffman
  2. Susan Peltz
  3. Kathryn Jenkins
  4. Daniela Madiol
  5. Tali Schussler
  6. Mandy Gallimore
  7. Whitney Moore
  8. Lisa Sarnowski
  9. Rachele Whitlow

 

November 15: Writing Week - No Class

November 20: Research Paper Drafts Due, via OnCourse.

November 22: Happy Thanksgiving - No Class

November 29: Defining Marriage for the 21st Century

reading:

Position Papers:

  1. Jonathan Williams
  2. Michael Harris
  3. Scott Lillard
  4. Alex Gettelfinger
  5. Liam Sexton
  6. Emma Young
  7. Lizzie Cowan
  8. Andrew McKean
  9. Shauna Pauszek

December 6: No Class. Final Paper Due.