Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation

What it is about

Public Vows is Nancy Cott’s history of how the United States used marriage law to define household, race, citizenship, and who could form a legal couple. She shows marriage as a public institution that shaped nationhood, not only as a private romance. The book is kept so readers see vows as state policy as well as personal promise. It is U.S. legal and political history, not couples therapy and not a guide to filing paperwork today.

Questions it can answer

• How did U.S. marriage law define household, race, and citizenship?
• Why does Cott treat marriage as a public institution, not only private romance?
• How do public vows differ from a purely personal promise in this history?

What you will not find

• Current how-to for marriage licences or immigration forms
• A communication curriculum for newlyweds
• A complete history of marriage outside the United States