Is Marriage Outdated?

@HachetteBooks

Just finished this, due out in June in hardcover. A fascinating (and lively) trip through divorce in the U.S. via four at-the-time well-known women.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, South Dakota had the most lenient laws governing divorce. Because of this, women - and men - travelled from the East Coast to legally separate themselves from spouses whose marital transgressions were not recognized as sufficiently heinous (usually, *just* adultery) for such a decision. New York, in particular, had strict and limited divorce laws, and women who fled west included representatives of the Astors, the Blaines, and the Molineuxes. These women's fight to free themselves from abusive and murderous husbands filled the headlines; put Sioux Falls, South Dakota on the map; and made crucial the long discussion regarding marriage equality.