THE ROAD TO RENO.

By Nelson Manfred Blake '30. New York: Macmillan,1962. 269 pp. $5.00.

The Road to Reno is a scholarly history of divorce in the United States, enriched by illustrative material which should make the book both interesting and attractive to the general reader. After a preliminary chapter, pointing up the extremes of divorce procedure in the states of Nevada and New York, the author turns to the "Long Arm of the Past," to discuss divorce in the ancient world, in early Christian teachings, and in the practices of the Medieval Church. The impact of the Protestant Revolt is also noted, particularly in England where, under the sway of the Anglican Church, divorce became almost impossible.

In the American colonies divorce was rare. The Puritan colonies, however, with their emphasis on civil marriage recognized the principle of civil divorce and accepted a number of grounds for divorce. In the Southern colonies, on the other hand, marriage and divorce were covered by English ecclesiastical law which did not permit absolute divorce, though it did allow for judicial separation from bed and board on grounds of adultery and cruelty. But there were neither bishops nor ecclesiastical courts to handle the problem. In the middle colonies the refusal of the British government to permit the colonial legislatures to grant divorces made divorce almost impossible.

Following the Revolution, with British curbs removed, a number of the states liberalized their divorce laws. Not all of the states moved with the times, however, for New York persisted in its law of 1787 which accepted only one ground for divorce, adultery, while South Carolina refused to admit the right of divorce on any grounds. It was the failure of the more conservative states, and particularly New York, to liberalize their divorce laws that soon led to the phenomenon of migratory divorce and the appearance of divorce colonies. For a time Indiana and other states of the new west were popular with divorce seekers, but as these states gradually tightened their divorce laws the migration moved farther west to Nevada, Utah, the United States territories and Mexico. Nevada, with its six weeks residence requirement, is today probably the most attractive of the divorce colonies. Meanwhile, in New York with its archaic divorce law, apparently persisted in for political and religious reasons, conditions became what might have been expected: for the well-to-do there was Reno, but many interested parties resorted to collusion and other chicanery to gain their ends, while for the poor desertion, the poor man's divorce, was not uncommon.

In the years following the Revolution many of the state legislatures granted divorce on an individual basis. In the end, however, this burden on the legislatures proved too great, and divorce was turned over to the courts. From time to time efforts have been made to unify divorce laws for the nation through Congressional action or constitutional amendment, but all such efforts have failed dismally. Divorce is still in the hands of the states. However, over the years the state divorce laws have tended to a degree of rough uniformity. The five generally recognized grounds for divorce are adultery, desertion, cruelty, felony convictions, and alcoholism. Thirty-nine of the states recognize all five of these, while six of the remaining eleven, including South Carolina, recognize all but one. The five most conservative states are New York, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia.

In his concluding chapter the author calls attention to the rise of the family courts in several of the states as a significant experiment in mediating family troubles, and so avoiding the divorce courts.

The Road to Reno is the first history of divorce in the United States to be published for many years. Professor Blake has made a significant contribution to American social history.