The marriage is qualitatively different than a monogamous one. As Stenhouse notes, the husband "aims to be looked upon more as a ruler than as the head of a family," (149). Flowers confirms Stenhouse's observations, "the practice of polygamy tended to instill in people the attitude of despotism or authoritarianism" (22). Polygamy also reveals a deep contradiction in Mormon philosophy. "The irony is that a gospel of universal brotherhood…is so marked on every hand by borders, boundaries, and radical difference" (Givens 295).
Polygamy in America has almost become synonymous with Mormonism. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been at the center of a national debate that spanned the issues of religious freedom, federalism, and feminism. Plural marriage mirrored an unequal social...
That Godless Court? Supreme Court Decisions on Church-State Relationships. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1989.
Givens, Terry L. People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Doubleday, 2003.
Stenhouse, Fanny. Expose of Polygamy: A Lady's Life Among the Mormons. Ed. Linda Wilcox Simone. Utah: Utah State University Press.
