Introduction
1 Education for Social Hygiene
2 Sex Radical Challenges to Marriage
3 Companionate Marriage
4 Modern Marriage: Three Visions
5 Sexual Advice for Modern Marriage
Conclusion
Appendix: Selection of Marriage Manuals
Notes
Index
Christina Simmons is Associate Professor of History at the University of Windsor. She is the co-editor of Passion and Power: Sexuality in History.
"If you imagine that it took the sexual revolution of the 1960s to
rumple the marriage bed, read this book--a very revealing, serious,
and highly useful study of changes in thinking about sex and
marriage before World War II."--Nancy F. Cott, author of Public
Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation
"In this important book, Christina Simmons insightfully examines
the ideas and impact of intellectuals, novelists, advice writers,
reformers, and radicals who forged a new vision of marital
sexuality in the early twentieth century. In so doing, she
illuminates the range of views--about heterosexual companionship,
sexual knowledge, and female independence--that made marriage
modern in the 1920s and 1930s, and continue to shape attitudes to
the present
day."--Kathy Peiss, author of Hope in a Jar
"In a carefully researched and crisply written account, Simmons
reconstructs debates--about sex for pleasure, privacy for couples,
and equality for women--that still have relevance for us today. A
smart, engaging, and important book."--Joanne Meyerowitz, author of
How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United
States
"Challenging both the myth of Victorian repression and the notion
that it took women's liberation to transform the institution of
marriage, Christina Simmons traces profound changes in sexual and
marital relations from the 1910s through the 1940s. She analyzes
debates over intimacy, privacy, freedom, and reciprocity among
reformers, intellectuals, sex radicals, educators, therapists,
physicians, novelists, and playwrights. Deeply researched and
lucidly argued,
Making Marriage Modern changes the terrain for all future
discussions of marriage in the twentieth century."--Nancy A.
Hewitt, Rutgers University
"Simmons' complex interpretation of white and African American
sources maps a range of competing sexual ideals. Grounded in sex
advice literature, marriage manuals, and reform tracts, this book
will fascinate readers and provide important perspectives on
contemporary debates over sex education, reproductive rights, and
the changing definition of marriage."--Estelle B. Freedman, author
of No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of
Women
"Simmons's ability to bring order to the cacophony of opinions
about sex and marriage is a clear strength of this book...Another
noteworthy asset is her attention not only to gender but also
race...Simmons's work will surely serve as an example for future
explorations in this vein, just as it has helped loosen the hold of
teh 1950s on the history of twentieth-century marriage."--Journal
of American History
"Simmons skillfully navigates the discourses of leftists,
feminists, and bohemians who called for a positive vision of female
sexuality based on individual autonomy and limited governmental
intrusion...Simmons's work offers the fullest historical
examination of companionate marrage to date."--Alexander Street
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