Se marier pour vivre plus longtemps ? Le suicide des célibataires en perspective transatlantique (1870-1920)

This paper places unmarried people into the mainstream of American history. It looks at the cultural construct of singlehood as a threat for the future of the American people during the Progressive Era. This fear of singlehood was based upon intellectual exchanges between Europe and the United States, and established a correlation between marital status and suicide. It is no coincidence that advocates of the « race suicide theory » targeted unmarried people, not only in their discourse, but also in the social practices they implemented.