"We commonly think of marriage as a private matter between two people, a personal expression of love and commitment. In this history, Nancy F. Cott demonstrates that marriage is and always has been a public institution. From the founding of the United States to the present day, imperatives about the necessity of marriage and its proper form have been deeply embedded in national policy, law, and political rhetoric.

Legislators and judges have envisioned and enforced their preferred model of consensual, lifelong monogamy - a model derived from Christian tenets and the English common law, which posits the husband as provider and the wife as dependent."--BOOK JACKET.