The Antipolygamy Controversy in U.S. Women's Movements, 1880-1925: A Debate on the American Home

by Joan Smyth Iversen

Overview

This first study of the antipolygamy movement in the United States traces its growth from a Utah-based women's group into a national crusade where it sparked a debate in suffrage politics. The author analyzes this debate, highlighting the differing views of marriage, family, and the role of women held by suffrage leaders, Mormon women, and antipolygamy reformers. Antipolygamy rhetoric masked a more significant debate within women's groups about the structure and meaning of the American family. Coming in the post-Civil War period, the antipolygamy agenda reflects an attempt to re-construct the Republican family, diminish patriarchal authority, and improve the status of women. The reaction of the antipolygamy women was also more than a struggle for power. Their adherence to the Republican family was a discourse involving not just rhetoric, but a whole range of cultural forms and institutions which provided women with status, moral authority, and an identity. Often the fear of polygamy was mingled with anxiety over the increase in divorce and the emergence of the new woman. Ironically, by the end of the long congressional battle over Utah and the Mormons, both the rhetoric of polygamy and antipolygamy were used against the women's movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135594657
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/21/2014
Series:	Development of American Feminism
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Joan Smyth Iversen

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Context and Background; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4 The Rise of the Women's Antipolygamy Crusade, 1872–1887; Chapter 5 The Discourse of Antipolygamy; Chapter 6; Chapter 7 The Resurgence of the Antipolygamy Controversy, 1898–1900; Chapter 8 The Masculine Backlash, 1903–1912; Chapter 9 The End of an Era; arc Archives; man Manuscript Collections; jou Journals;

Editorial Reviews

"Joan Iversen's study of the Mormon-sufferage alliance and successive national antipolygamy movements is rich in detail and well-grounded in the latest historical literature . . .as women's history and gender studies seek to recast the main outlines of the dominant intrepretations of US history, this book adds its voice to a growing chorus who are proclaiming that women were actors, grass-roots activists, and opinion-shapers in nationalmovemnts that previous generations of historials understood through only the eyes of meno." — Phoebe
"...rich in detail and well-grounded in the latest historical literature. This book asks basic questions about how social arrangements and religion affect women's condition and how such arrangements can and cannot be affected by reform movements." — Phoebe
"...the narrative is both accessible and exciting: strongly organized, vividly illustrated with telling vignettes and quotations, and insightfully analyzed for meaning and connections with larger currents of nineteenth century thought." — The Journal of Mormon History
"Further-bibliography, they are a treasure trove, an essential guide to archival depositories and to existing publications...I unequivocally recommend the   Antipolygamy Controversy in U.S. Women's Movement 1880-1925 to scholars and novices who wish they knew more about polygamy, the antipolygamy movement, and the women's movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."
"Quibbls aside, this volume makes a significant contribution to a number of different fields. Particularly compelling is Iversen's discussion of how both suffragists and their opponents used antipolygamy rhetoric to further their own aims until women were given the vote in 1920."
"Joan Iversen's study of the Mormon-suffrage alliance and successive national antipolygamy movements is rich in detail and well-grounded in the latest historical literature...As women's history and gender studies seek to recast the main outlines of the dominant interpretations of U.S. history, this book adds its voice to a growing chorus who are proclaiming that women were actors, grass roots activists, and opinion-shapers in national movements that previous generations of historians understood only through the eyes of men."
"...On top of its sights into moral reform movements, this book will be provocative for students of the progressive era...Within this outstanding study the author displays a grasp of the literature on women, Mormonism, reform, Utah's history, among many other topics...For me, a descendant of Utah's polygamous Mormon women, Iversen's portrayal of my ancestors'sturdiness and their connection to larger issues in women's history has been a gift. Certainly, future scholars will need to turn to her work as one of the pioneering books on moral reform and the roots of women's influence in late-nineteenth and early twentieth century American political culture."
"This book is the first clear narrative of the women's antipolygamy movement, a deeply researched, carefully written, comprehensive, and valuable analysis of events, personalities, causes, and effects. Although Iversen modestly calls it a beginning for further inquiry(preface),thus inviting detailed histories of virtually every movement and organization; this work establishes the field within which future scholars will work and confirms definitively the importance of antipolygamy activism in the nineteenth-century U.S. woman's movement."
"Thanks to the comprehensiveness of Iversen's research, the narrative is both accessible and exciting: strongly organized, vividly illustrated with telling vignettes and quotations, and insightfully analyzed for meaning and connections with larger current of nineteenth-century thought. Furthermore, despite my dislike for the visual presentation of the endnotes and bibliography, they are a treasure trove, an essential guide to archival depositories and to existing publications...I unequivocally recommend the Antipolygamy Controversy in U.S. Women's Movement 1880-1925 to scholars and novices who wish they knew more about polygamy, the antipolygamy movement, and the women's movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth century."

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