Not a 'women's issue': divorce and the family as a political battleground for secularizers and Catholics from 1792 to 1816
| dc.contributor.author | Hartley, Samantha Audrey | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Alexander, R. S. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-02-21T00:33:44Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-02-21T00:33:44Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1999 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of History | |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the political ramifications of divorce legislation and its relevance to France's progressive secularization in the nineteenth century, using legislative debates, newspapers, memoirs, and pamphlet literature. In looking at arguments for and against divorce a pattern is evident, tying divorce symbolically to the social and political changes produced by the Revolution. This pattern is illustrated by a chronological examination of France's political history beginning with the introduction of Enlightenment ideas of contract theory, individual liberty, and personal happiness. These arguments pitted Republican ideals against Catholic tradition -- divorce and contractual marriage represented the secularism of the Revolution, and therefore divorce was restricted under conservative regimes such as the Consulate, Empire, and Third Republic and abolished under the Ultraroyalist chombre introuvable. The pattern of republican and liberal support of divorce, overcome by periods of social conservatism, continued w1til divorce's reintroduction under the Third Republic in 1884. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/23335 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.title | Not a 'women's issue': divorce and the family as a political battleground for secularizers and Catholics from 1792 to 1816 | |
| dc.type | Thesis |