Description

From back cover:

More Wives Than One offers an in-depth look at the long-term interaction between belief and the practice of polygamy, or plural marriage, among the Latter-day Saints. Focusing on the small community of Manti, Utah, Kathryn M. Daynes provides an intimate view of how Mormon doctrine and Utah laws on marriage and divorce were applied in people's lives.

"Kathryn M. Daynes's book is the most important study to date of plural marriage in nineteenth-century Utah and is especially significant for its detailed analysis of the demographics of Mormonism's 'peculiar institution.'"

—American Historical Review

"The scope of Kathryn Daynes's book is truly breathtaking and richly deserves being honored. . . . Clearly, this book is absolutely essential for anyone who wants to understand Mormonism's nineteenth-century marriage relationships."

—Journal of Mormon History

"Daynes's excellent study of the rise and decline of polygamy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an important contribution to our understanding of Mormonism. . . . Subtle and informative, Daynes's book is social history at its best."

—Religious Studies Review

"The most complete and methodical account of Mormon polygamy to date. . . . More than any previous work, More Wives Than One provides scholars and general readers specific information about the intersection between belief and practice of this often misconstrued marriage system."

—Nova Religio

"Daynes has given us a clear and cogent explanation for the rules and regulations of the nineteenth-century Mormon marriage system. Daynes has also helped us understand the complexity of the interactions of the church, the law, and the family that shaped the system and necessitated its revisions. All subsequent study of this system must now begin with her work."

—Western Historical Quarterly

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

part 1: genesis to revelation: introduction of plural marriage to the manifesto

1. Kirtland and Nauvoo: Beginnings of Plural Marriage
2. Plural Marriage under Mormon Control

part 2: i leviticus: legal and ecclesiastical framework for marriage

3. Nineteenth-Century Marriage Law in Utah
4. The Nature of Mormon Marriages

part 3: numbers: an analysis of the marriage patterns of manti women

5. The Marriage Market
6. Women Who Became Plural Wives
7. Economics and Plural Marriage

part 4: ii leviticus: legal and ecclesiastical framework for divorce

8. Civil and Ecclesiastical Divorce
9. Incidence of Divorce and Remarriage

part 5: acts and judges: the mormon marriage system and its demise

10. The Decline of Plural Marriage
11. The Nineteenth-Century Mormon Marriage System

Appendix: Description of Demographic Data
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Illustrations