Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The voices of ordinary women speak volumes in this sweeping history of women and marriage in the Western world. As with her well-received A History of the Breast, Yalom, a scholar at Stanford's Institute for Women and Gender, moves easily among several fieldsÄfeminist history, religion and myth, anthropology, personal narratives, literature, pop culture and sociologyÄto trace the changing role of wives from ancient times to the present. The general direction of changeÄfrom subordinate toward more egalitarian rolesÄcomes as no surprise. What may be unexpected, however, is Yalom's evidence that, while generally conforming to cultural norms, individual marriages throughout history have been more complex than law and tradition may have dictated. Barren wives were sometimes favored over fertile ones, arranged marriages sometimes encompassed deep love and wives' personal "power" could vary considerably. Nevertheless, marriages were hardly egalitarian, even after late-18th-century political ideals proclaimed women to be "co-creators of... new republican societies" in America and Europe. Wives had little legal autonomy; they could not control their own money or even have access to their children in the event of separation or divorce, until equal rights began to be won during the 20th century. Yalom discusses the push for birth control rights, the impact of the depression and World War II and today's two-spouse-income economy and 50% divorce rate. She excels in presenting personal perspectives, including those of working-class wives, immigrants, African-Americans and lesbians. Yet she is less successful in examining wider societal effects, including the impact of high divorce rates. "To be a wife today when there are few prescriptions or proscriptions is truly a creative endeavor," she concludes; true enough, but it's an insufficient explanation for how egalitarian marriages might actually work. (Feb.) Forecast: Stunning cover art, a topical subject and the title's echo of Yalom's previous book should attract many readers in addition to this book's obvious audience of women's studies majors. If Oprah did history, this might be her kind of book. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Cultural historian Yalom (Inst. for Women and Gender, Stanford Univ.) has apparently written the first truly comprehensive history of the Western female spousal experience; indeed, there are precious few long views of either marriage or the family to which this book can be compared. Beginning with the biblical ancients and ending with Bill and Hillary, Yalom concludes optimistically, asserting that the situation of contemporary wives todayDand despite disquieting statistics on infidelity and divorceDis at long last less a burden than a collaborative, loving opportunity. Yalom's particular interest tends toward how wives have enteredDor more typically, have been enteredDinto marriage. One oddity: despite referencing numerous works in the popular literary canonDincluding a thoughtful discussion of Ibsen's A Doll's HouseDshe virtually ignores what film and music have had to say about wives. Yalom's previous book, A History of the Breast (LJ 2/15/97), was certainly more daring and will have the more lasting intellectual impact. But this is an important work for all libraries valuing significant gender studies acquisitions. Recommended.DScott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An upbeat history of the evolution of marriage, wifedom, and womens status through European and American history. Yalom (Institute for Women and Gender/Stanford Univ.; A History of the Breast, 1997, etc.) suggests that she intends to examine the historical roots of the dramatic changes marriage roles have undergone over the last 50 years, but instead she meanders amiably through wifedoms many permutations over the centuries with little momentum toward a conclusion. The books scope is too broad for much groundbreaking original scholarship, or even scrupulous historical accuracy, especially in the early chapters; for example, the Iliad and the story of Jacobs marriage to Rachel and Leah are presented as evidence of beliefs and even practices, without any discussion of their status as literary inventions, and there are casual references to the biblical period as though all times and regions over the thousand-year course of Biblical composition were basically the same. Still, brisk, jargon-free prose and wonderfully vivid case histories, including the 15th-century Florentine soap opera of Lusanna di Benedetto and Giovanni della Casa, more than compensate for any lapses of scholarly rigor. Yalom hits her stride with the early Renaissance, offering the redoubtable couple Katherina and Martin Luther as an early prototype for politically charged republican marriages in the era of the American and French revolutions. Although the Victorian dogma of separate spheres damped down this 18th-century burst of egalitarianism, the demands of Empire and frontier paradoxically offered women new opportunities, illustrated by passages from previously published journals and letters. The struggles of women like Bethenia Owens-Adair, who divorced her abusive husband to become a medical doctor in 1880, culminated in the activist New Women of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. After a brief tour through the backlash of the 1950s, Yalom traces the growing flexibility of marriage in the postmodern era. No startling new insights here, but a useful and refreshingly cheerful overview of womens changing roles in marriage and society.
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