The Polygamist Papers is the flagship volume in a series that examines plural marriage from a socioeconomic perspective. It was drafted to (a) ensure readers an accurate understanding of polygamous culture's intent and purpose, (b) highlight the cross-cultural and international scope of polygamy, (c) reveal the communitarian ethic inherent within polygynous families, and (d) uproot mythology surrounding polygamy.The series is an ethnographic endeavor that spans three decades and 25,000 hours of primary research. The author was raised in a polygamous family in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and has been given testimonies from polygamists residing in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as adult children and former members of polygamous families. This 54-page revised edition has been updated with nearly 40 footnotes, an expanded bibliography, and additional reader reviews, while improvements were made to grammar, tone, and font style."The Polygamist Papers, Vol. 2: Polygamy as Economic Warfare," debuts Spring 2015.

In We Want for Our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves, Dr. Patricia Dixon debunks myths about monogamy and polygyny and challenges us to rethink our approach to marriage and family. This book reveals that before European domination, polygyny was an accepted marriage and family practice in over eighty percent of the world's cultures. Even in Western societies, polygyny has always been practiced. However, because it is done so under a myth of monogamy, this creates a "peculiar" form of the practice that is demoralizing to women. This peculiar form of polygyny was practiced in early European history in Greece and Rome. It was also practiced during slavery in the U.S. to the detriment of African American women and their families. Even in contemporary America, because closed polygyny is practiced in various forms, under the guise of monogamy, it continues to disempower African American women and undermine their marriages and families. Dr. Dixon offers many reasons to support polygyny, most importantly, the shortage of available African American men. Through extensive interviews, she offers an insider's look at polygynous marriages, showing readers its benefits and disadvantages, inter-personal dynamics, how financial, sexual, and parental responsibilities are determined, and the legal, moral, and cultural challenges that must be overcome in order to make polygynous marriage possible within American society. Finally, she calls for African American women to move toward building marriages and families based on love, truth, community, and ultimately a womanist ethic of care for sisters. Book jacket.

In this changing world of what is deemed socially and politically "correct," polygamy is perhaps the last great taboo. Over the course of the last thousand years, monogamy - at least in name - has been the default setting for coupledom and procreation. And yet, throughout history, there havebeen inklings that "one-man, one-woman" may not be the most natural state-of-being for humans. The recent Ashley Madison "cheaters website" hacking, coupled with the high divorce rate of the last half-century, provide more than enough evidence to convince even a hopeless romantic that monogamy, andthe institution of marriage which props it up, is doomed to be a bygone remnant of a more socially conservative past.Esteemed writer and evolutionary biologist David P. Barash tackles this uncomfortable finding: that humans are actually biologically and anthropologically more inclined toward polygamy. With years of research in the field to back up this argument, Barash presents hundreds of anecdotes from bothevolutionary biology and human history that guide the reader through the societal impacts of monogamy and polygamy - some expected (sexual behavior) and others unexpected (the most successful models of parenting). Despite this natural inclination of humanity, Barash is reassuring throughout thisfascinating read in his resolution that "biology is not destiny."

In Defense of Biblical Polygyny (Multiple Wives) Elisha J. Israel makes a compelling case for the morality of plural marriage. In this book, Israel explains the prevalence of polygyny among the ancient Israelites. Israel also explains how Christians came to uphold monogamous marriage as the only legitimate marital structure. In Defense of Biblical Polygyny (Multiple Wives) also combats the most popular Biblical arguments against polygynous marriage. This book will undoubtedly challenge your beliefs about marriage. This book is a must read!

This book is not an advocacy for the practice of polygany. What it is advocating is the correct historical perspective of polygany and the reason for its development in ancient African societies, a view that has been historically distorted because of cultural biases and ignorance. Going through school and learning about the subject of history is, to many, the memorization of events and dates without any real understanding of historical events. Although we may know history, we have no understanding about it. For the most part, we don’t understand history because of fragmentations caused by distortion and straight-out lies passed on as truth—fragmentation due to the evolution of an idea evolving from one thing to another until the original idea or meaning is lost, fragmentation caused from the destruction of civilizations along with the loss of the meanings of the languages and customs and therefore its history, and fragmentations or distortions intentionally or unintentionally caused by an outsider when one looks through their own cultural lens in interpreting a culture that is not their own. However fragmented a piece of history may be, once those fragmentations are put back together as in a jigsaw puzzle, only then will we be able to see the whole picture and have understanding.

In the last several years a wealth of information has been published on Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy. For some who were already well aware of this aspect of early Mormon history, the availability of new research and discovered documents has been a wellspring of further insight and knowledge into this topic. For others who are learning of Joseph's marriages to other women for the first time, these books and online publications can be both an information overload and a challenge to one's faith. In this short volume, Brian C. Hales (author of the 3-volume Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology) and Laura H. Hales wade through the murky waters of history to help bring some clarity to this episode of Mormonism's past. As Joseph Smith's participation in plural marriage involved more than just the Prophet and his first wife Emma, this volume also includes short biographical sketches of the 35 other women who were sealed to Joseph but whose stories of faith, struggle, and courage have been largely forgotten and ignored over time. While we may never fully understand the details and reasons surrounding this practice, Brian and Laura Hales provide readers with an accessible, forthright, and faithful look into this challenging topic so that we can at least come toward a better understanding. Praise for Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding "Few matters of LDS history have proven to be as faith-sensitive as Joseph Smith's plural marriages. While a number of efforts have been made in recent years to shed light on this challenging phenomenon, nothing has brought greater clarity, enlightenment, and, particularly for believing Saints, spiritual reassurance, than has the work of researcher Brian Hales. He and his wife Laura have now rendered a monumental service to Mormons and interested observers by bringing clarity and better understanding to this topic. I for one am grateful for the context, perspective, and both straightforward and faithful answers provided for so many of the questions surrounding Nauvoo polygamy. It is a book that will be read and discussed for years to come." - Robert L. Millet, Professor Emeritus of Religious Education, Brigham Young University

Mormons and non-Mormons all have their views about how polygamy was practiced in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Embry has examined the participants themselves in order to understand how men and women living a nineteenth-century Victorian lifestyle adapted to polygamy. Based on records and oral histories with husbands, wives, and children who lived in Mormon polygamous households, this study explores the diverse experiences of individual families and stereotypes about polygamy.The interviews are in some cases the only sources of primary information on how plural families were organized. In addition, children from monogamous families who grew up during the same period were interviewed to form a comparison group. When carefully examined, most of the stereotypes about polygamous marriages do not hold true. In this work it becomes clear that Mormon polygamous families were not much different from Mormon monogamous families and non-Mormon families of the same era. Embry offers a new perspective on the Mormon practice of polygamy that enables readers to gain better understanding of Mormonism historically.