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Introduction : forbidden intimacies in global perspective -- Racial projects and unexpected divergences -- Labyrinthine love and homegrown polygamies -- Migratory polygamies : racialization and colonial reckonings -- Gender, power, and agency in forbidden intimacies -- Pushing polygynous families underground -- Recognizing polygamies -- Conclusion : forbidden intimacies, racial projects, and legal jeopardy.

The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. In this timely and extensive study of marriage politics, Melanie Heath uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety. From marriage workshops for the general public to relationship classes for welfare recipients to marriage education in high school classrooms, One Marriage Under God explores the impact of policies that seek to re-institutionalize heterosexual marriage in American society.

In recent years, policy efforts to alleviate poverty have focused on marriage and relationship education. Orit Avishai's, Melanie Heath's,and Jennifer Randles's research finds that efforts to address poverty via relationship skills training are misguided because this approach does not address the structural causes of poverty.