Introduction -- Flesh, two heads : debating the biblical blueprint for marriage in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries -- Battered women, petty traitors, and the legacy of coverture -- Fighting for the breeches, sharing the rod : spouses, servants, and the struggle for equality -- How a maiden keeps her head : Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, and the perils of marriage -- Afterword
Summary
Marriage is often described as a melding of two people into one. But what--or who--must be lost, fragmented, or buried in that process? Dolan reveals the contradiction that lies at the very heart of modern marriage. We have inherited from early modern England a model of marriage, she contends, so flawed that its logical consequence is conflict
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-223) and index
