Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:19:46.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Not Ozzie and Harriet: Postwar Divorce and the American Liberal Welfare State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Katherine L. Caldwell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyzes divorce as a technology of governance in twentieth-century America in order to examine the emergence of a rights-based liberal welfare-state regime during the postwar era. The author offers an interpretation of the post–World War II “divorce boom” that challenges prevailing notions of postwar domestic tranquillity and highlights the legal formalization of family relations and the administration of the developing welfare state. The article posits an important shift in postwar public policy regarding divorce from the policing of public morality through family preservation to the regulation of public welfare through family structures. The legal consequences of this shift are explored at the local level by focusing on the “problem” of the Chicago divorce courts and the frustrated attempts of postwar reformers in Illinois to employ the traditional methods and rhetoric of Progressive Era reform. At the national level, the author examines the formulation of new governmental objectives and individual rights in the liberal welfare-state regime through an analysis of the United States Supreme Court's decisions regarding migratory divorce.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , Winter 1998 , pp. 1 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1998 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Alexander, Paul W. 1948. Family Life Conference Suggests New Judicial Procedures and Attitudes toward Marriage and Divorce. Journal of the American Judicature Society 32 (August):38–47.Google Scholar
American Bar Association Journal. 1948. Divorce Laws: Remedies for Abuses and Scandals Are Sought. American Bar Association Journal 34 (March):195–99.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Walter P. Jr. 1991. A Century of Service: A Centennial History of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. St. Paul, Minn.: West.Google Scholar
Baber, Ray E. 1943. Marriage and Family after the War. Annals of the American Academy 229 (September):164–75.Google Scholar
Beale, Calvin L. 1950. Increased Divorce Rates Among Separated Persons as a Factor in Divorce since 1940. Social Forces 29, No. 1 (October):72–74.Google Scholar
Benedict, Lyle, comp. 1989. Marriages, Divorces and Dissolution Ratios: Cook County, Illinois from 1831 Municipal Reference Library, Chicago, Ill.Google Scholar
Bernard, Jessie. 1966. Marriage and Family among Negroes. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Blake, Nelson M. 1962. The Road to Reno: A History of Divorce in the United States. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Bradway, John B. 1956. Divorce Litigation and the Welfare of the Family. Vanderbilt Law Review 9:665–84.Google Scholar
Brinkley, Alan. 1995. The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Brockelbank, W. J. 1951. The Problem of Family Support: A New Uniform Act Offers a Solution. American Bar Association Journal 37 (February): 93–96, 165–67.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1992. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Burgess, Edwin. Papers. Regenstein Library Special Collections, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Burgess, Ernest W., and Locke, Harvey J. 1953. The Family: From Institution to Companionship. New York: American Book.Google Scholar
Byars, Jackie. 1991. All That Hollywood Allows: Re-Reading Gender in 1950s Melodrama. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Caldwell, Katherine L. N. D. To Bar My Hands as Alien (work in progress).Google Scholar
Chicago Bar Record. 1947. Divorce Cases in City Courts. Chicago Bar Record. 28 (January):161–64.Google Scholar
Chicago Bar Record. 1949. Schedule of Minimum Fees. Chicago Bar Record 30 (August-September):413–16.Google Scholar
Chused, Richard H. 1994. Private Acts in Public Places: A Social History of Divorce in the Formative Era of American Family Law. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Cooney, James B. 1947. Until Decree Do Us Part. Chicago Bar Record 28 (March):249–50.Google Scholar
Cutright, Phillip. 1974. Components of Change in Number of Female Family Heads Aged 15–44: United States, 1940–1970. Journal of Marriage and the Family 36 (November):714–21.Google Scholar
D'Emilio, John 1983. Sexual Politics, Sexual Lives: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DiFonzo, J. Herbie 1997. Beneath the Fault Line: The Popular and Legal Culture of Divorce in Twentieth-Century America. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Donzelot, Jacques. 1979. The Policing of Families. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Drake, St. Clair, and Cayton, Horace R. 1945. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter B., Rueschmeyer, Deitrich, and Skocpol, Theda. 1985. Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson 1991. The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1991. Governmentality. In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Frazier, E. Franklin. 1932. The Negro Family in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Freidel, Frank, and Brinkley, Alan. 1982. America in the Twentieth Century. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Friedman, Irving S., and Weinberg, Meyer. 1961. Matrimonial Law in Illinois in the ′50′s. De Paul Law Review 10:445–66.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. 1984. Rights of Passage: Divorce Law in Historical Perspective. Oregon Law Review 63:649–69.Google Scholar
Gabin, Nancy F. 1990. Feminism in the Labor Movement: Women and the United Auto Workers, 1935–1975. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
General Assembly of the State of Illinois. 1947. Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the Sixty-Fifth General Assembly. Chicago: General Assembly of the State of Illinois.Google Scholar
Gordon, Linda, ed. 1990. Women, the State, and Welfare. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Grossberg, Michael. 1985a. Crossing Boundaries: Nineteenth-Century Domestic Relations Law and the Merger of Family and Legal History. American Bar Foundation Research Journal 1985: 799–847.Google Scholar
Grossberg, Michael. 1985b. Governing the Hearth: Law and Family in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian. 1991. How Should We Do a History of Statistics? In The Foucault Effect, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Halem, Lynne Carol. 1980. Divorce Reform: Changing Legal and Social Perspectives. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Halsey, Ashley Jr., ed. 1954. You Be the Judge. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Susan M. 1994. Women's Employment and the Domestic Ideal in Early Cold War Years. In Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–60, ed. Meyerowitz, Joanne. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Holt, Harold Wright. 1941. Any More Light on Haddock v. Haddock: The Problem of Domicile in Divorce. Michigan Law Review 39:689–718.Google Scholar
Illinois Bar Journal. 1950. Divorce—Validity of Legislative Establishment of Divorce Divisions in Certain Judicial Circuits. Illinois Bar Journal 38 (June):585–88.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Paul H. 1959. American Marriage and Divorce. New York: Rinehart.Google Scholar
Jones, Mary Somerville. 1987. An Historical Geography of the Changing Divorce Law in the United States. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Kenworthy, Charles E. 1946. Are You Sure You're Not a Bigamist Saturday Evening Post 12 January, 116.Google Scholar
Kephart, William. 1961. The Family, Society, and the Individual Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Lacey, Michael J., and Furner, Mary O., eds. 1993. The State and Social Investigation in Britain and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Law and Contemporary Problems 1939. Symposium. Law and Contemporary Problems 6 (spring).Google Scholar
Lichtenberger, J. P. 1931. Divorce: A Social Interpretation. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, Ernest G. 1943. Haddock w. Haddock Overruled. Yale Law Journal 52:341–54.Google Scholar
Maisel, Albert Q. 1957. Divorce Is Going Out of Style. Reader's Digest, August, 35–39.Google Scholar
Marshall, Leon C, and May, Geoffrey. 1933. The Divorce Court. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Martin, John Bartlow. 1958a. A Day in Court. Saturday Evening Post , 1 November, 21, 64–67.Google Scholar
Martin, John Bartlow. 1958b. Divorce: The Depths of Scandal. Saturday Evening Post , 15 November, 42–46, 75–78.Google Scholar
Martin, John Bartlow. 1958c. A Little Nest of Hate, Saturday Evening Post, 22 November, 36, 121–26.Google Scholar
May, Elaine Tyler. 1988. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mayer, Lewis. 1954. Ex Parte Divorce: A Proposed Federal Remedy. Columbia Law Review 54:54–69.Google Scholar
McDonagh, Edward C. 19451946. The Discharged Serviceman and His Family. American Journal of Sociology 51 (July 1945-May 1946):451–54.Google Scholar
Meyerowitz, Joanne. 1994. Introduction: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–60. In Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–60, ed. Joanne Meyerowitz. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Sentinel 1942. Change Urged in Allotment of Soldiers' Pay. Milwaukee Sentinel, 24 September.Google Scholar
Miner, Julius H. 1947. Conciliation Rather Than Reconciliation. Chicago Bar Record 29 (December):1 17–18.Google Scholar
Miner, Julius H. 1948. Conciliation Rather Than Reconciliation. Illinois Law Review 43 (September-October): 464–94.Google Scholar
Miner, Julius H. 1956. An Illinois Innovation: The “Cooling-Off” Divorce Law. American Bar Association Journal 42 (December):1131–34, 1172–74.Google Scholar
Minow, Martha. 1985. Forming Underneath Everything that Grows: Toward a History of Family Law. Wisconsin Law Review 1985:819–98.Google Scholar
Morris, J. H. C. 1951. Divisible Divorce. Harvard Law Review 64:1287–1303.Google Scholar
Mowrer, Ernest R. 1943. War and Family Solidarity and Stability. Annals of the American Academy 229 (September):100–106.Google Scholar
Newsweek 1946. Divorce: The Postwar Boom. Newsweek, 7 October, 33–34.Google Scholar
Notes. 1948. University of Chicago Law Review 1948:200–206.Google Scholar
O'Gorman, Herbert J. 1963. Lawyers and Matrimonial Cases: A Study of Informal Pressures in Private Professional Practice. London: Collier-MacMillan.Google Scholar
Pavalko, Eliza K., and Elder, Glen H. Jr. 1990. World War II and Divorce: A Life-Course Perspective. American Journal of Sociology 95 (March):1213–35.Google Scholar
Phillips, Roderick. 1991. Untying the Knot: A Short History of Divorce. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pilpel, Harriet F., and Zavin, Theodora. 1952. Your Marriage and the Law. New York: Rinehart.Google Scholar
Rheinemann, J. O. 1945. Extra-marital Relations with Fellow Employee in War Industry as a Factor in Disruption of Family Life. American Sociological Review 10:399–404.Google Scholar
Rheinstein, Max. Papers. Regenstein Library Special Collections, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Riley, Glenda. 1991. Divorce: An American Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, and Skocpol, Theda, eds. 1996. States, Social Knowledge, and the Origins of Modern Social Policies. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Sepler, Harvey J. 1981. Measuring the Effects of No-Fault Divorce Laws across Fifty States: Quantifying a Zeitgeist. Family Law Quarterly 15 (Spring):65–89.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan S., and Sarat, Austin. 1987. Critical Traditions in Law and Society Research. Law & Society Review 21:165–74.Google Scholar
Sizemore, Lawrence Edward. 1948. Conflict of Law; Full Faith and Credit; Effect of Foreign Divorce Decree on Prior Alimony Judgments. Oklahoma Law Review 1:283–87.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Snell, James G. 1991. In The Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900–1939. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Solinger, Rickie. 1992. Wake up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stone, Lawrence. 1990. Road to Divorce: England, 1530–1870. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strickman, Leonard P. 1982. Marriage, Divorce, and the Constitution. Family Law Quarterly 15 (Winter): 259–348.Google Scholar
Sumner, James D. Jr. 1955. Full Faith and Credit for Divorce Decrees–Present Doctrine and Possible Changes. Vanderbilt Law Review 9:1–25.Google Scholar
Trubek, David M., and Esser, John. 1989. “Critical Empiricism” in American Legal Studies: Paradox, Program, or Pandora's Box Law and Social Inquiry 14:3–52.Google Scholar
United Charities of Chicago (UCC). Collection. Chicago Historical Society. Chicago, Ill.Google Scholar
University of Chicago Law Review. 1948. Unconstitutionality of Illinois Divorce Act. University of Chicago Law Review 15:770–73.Google Scholar
University of Chicago Law Review. 1951. Legislative Progress and Judicial Reluctance in Illinois Divorce Reform. University of Chicago Law Review 18 (Winter):342–49.Google Scholar
University of Pittsburgh Law Review. 1941. Domestic Relations–Parent and Child– Right of a Child to Sue Its Parent. University of Pittsburgh Law Review 8:77.Google Scholar
Virtue, Maxine Brood. 1956. Family Cases in Court. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Waller, Willard. 1943 The Family and Other Institutions. Annals of the American Academy 229 (September): 107–18.Google Scholar
Wayne, Harold N. 1944. G.I. Divorce Dangers. Colliers , 21 October, 13, 80.Google Scholar
Wietzman, Lenore J. 1985. The Divorce Revolution: The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences of Women and Children in America. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wittels, David G.: 1950. Why Parents Call It Quits. Saturday Evening Post, 28 January 28, 22–23. 82–89.Google Scholar

Cases

Ah Evelia v. Luciano L. Garcia, Case No. 15423, City Court of Chicago Heights, July 12, 1952.Google Scholar
Coe v. Coe , 334 U.S. 378 (1948).Google Scholar
Cook v. Cook , 342 U.S. 126 (1951).Google Scholar
Estin v. Estin , 334 U.S. 541 (1948).Google Scholar
Fox v. Fox, 9 Ill. 2d 509 (1956).Google Scholar
Guyton v. Guyton, 17 Ill. 2d 439 (1959).Google Scholar
Haddock v. Haddock , 201 U.S. 562 (1906).Google Scholar
Hunt v. County of Cook, 398 Ill. 412 (1947).Google Scholar
James v. James, 14 Ill. 2d 295 (1958).Google Scholar
Johnson v. Muelberger , 340 U.S. 581 (1951).Google Scholar
Kreiger v. Kreiger , 334 U.S. 55 (1948).Google Scholar
Light v. Light, 12 Ill. 2d 502 (1958).Google Scholar
Lindsay v. Lindsay, 257 Ill. 328 (1913).Google Scholar
May v. Anderson , 345 U.S. 528 (1953).Google Scholar
Parker v. Parker, 000 Ill. App. 293, 81 N.E.2d 745 (1948).Google Scholar
People ex rel. Bernat v Bicek, 405 Ill. 510 (1950).Google Scholar
People ex rel. Christiansen v. Connell, 2 Ill. 2d 332 (1954).Google Scholar
People ex rel. Doty v. Connell, 9 Ill. 2d 390 (1956).Google Scholar
People v. Smith, 200 Ill. 442 (1903).Google Scholar
Pope v. Pope, 2 I11 2d 152 (1954).Google Scholar
Sherrer v. Sherrer, 334 U.S. 343 (1948).Google Scholar
Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt, 354 U.S. 416 (1957).Google Scholar
Williams v. North Carolina, 317 U.S. 287 (1942).Google Scholar
Williams v. North Carolina, 325 US. 226 (1945).Google Scholar