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Loading... The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times (2010)by Ilyon Woo
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  GaylaBassham | May 27, 2018 |   Other than that, though, The Great Divorce really is a very good book, as well as a compelling read. (I couldn't put it down in the last half, despite the fact that Woo had already told me what was going to happen hundreds pages earlier. And despite the fact that everyone involved was long-dead.) My preference would have been for a little more analysis and a little more intellectual history. But it is certainly a compelling read, and left me thinking about the women's history on both sides of the legal battle. (  ) gayla.bassham | Nov 7, 2016 |  ) picardyrose | Oct 27, 2011 | Woo creates a well rounded account of this legal and social dance, giving the reader the facts without prejudice, making the reader want to cheer for each side alternatively. Woo digs out the story from buried letters, Shaker record and contemporaneous publications with such clarity and depth that it is hard to believe it took palce 200 years ago before the 24 hour news cycle. A wonderful read for anyone interested in women's rights, family law and religion. I recommend it. ( ) book58lover | Oct 17, 2011 | no reviews | add a review
History.
Nonfiction.
HTML:"Ilyon Woo presents the earliest child custody laws of this country with vivid relevance . . . both legal and feminist details are fascinating." â??St. Louis Post-Dispatch The Great Divorce is the dramatic, richly textured story of one of nineteenth-century America's most infamous divorce cases, in which a young mother single-handedly challenged her country's notions of women's rights, family, and marriage itself. In 1814, Eunice Chapman came home to discover that her three children had been carried off by her estranged husband. He had taken them, she learned, to live among a celibate, religious people known as the Shakers. Defying all expectations, this famously petite and lovely woman mounted an epic campaign against her husband, the Shakers, and the law. In its confrontation of some of the nation's most fundamental debatesâ??religious freedom, feminine virtue, the sanctity of marriageâ??her case struck a nerve with an uncertain new republic. And its culminationâ??in a stunning legislative decision and a terrifying mob attackâ??sent shockwaves through the Shaker community and the nation beyond. With a novelist's eye and a historian's perspective, Woo delivers the first full account of Eunice Chapman's remarkable struggle. A moving story about the power of a mother's love, The Great Divorce is also a memorable portrait of a rousing challenge to the values of a young nation. "Modern Americans, bombarded with stories of celebrity divorces, probably assume that the tabloid breakup is a recent phenomenon. This lively, well-written and engrossing tale proves them wrong." â??The New York Time No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)289.8Religions Christian denominations Other Christian sects ShakerLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.55)
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Wikipedia in English
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Other than that, though, The Great Divorce really is a very good book, as well as a compelling read. (I couldn't put it down in the last half, despite the fact that Woo had already told me what was going to happen hundreds pages earlier. And despite the fact that everyone involved was long-dead.) My preference would have been for a little more analysis and a little more intellectual history. But it is certainly a compelling read, and left me thinking about the women's history on both sides of the legal battle. (