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Book Cover for: From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America, Beth L. Bailey

From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America

Beth L. Bailey

From gentleman callers to big men on campus, from Coke dates to "parking," From Front Porch to Back Seat is the vivid history of dating in America. In chronicling a dramatic shift in patterns of courtship between the 1920s and the 1960s, Beth Bailey offers a provocative view of how we sought out mates-and of what accounted for our behavior. More than a quarter-century has passed since the dating system Bailey describes here lost its coherence and dominance. Yet the legacy of the system remains a strong part of our culture's attempt to define female and male roles alike.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
  • Publish Date: Aug 1st, 1989
  • Pages: 208
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.94in - 5.92in - 0.54in - 0.64lb
  • EAN: 9780801839351
  • Recommended age: 18-UP
  • Categories: Customs & TraditionsUnited States - 20th CenturyModern - 20th Century - General

About the Author

Bailey, Beth L.: - Beth Bailey teaches American history and is the director of American Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii.

Praise for this book

Whether or not we've come a long way since then, this engaging study of courtship shows that at least half the fun is in reading about getting there.

-- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"

As entertaining as it is informative. Bailey documents sources from Margaret Mead to advertising's hokey hype in her comprehensive analysis of the rituals of American amore, exploring the themes of 'control, competition, consumption, the sexual economy, etiquette and gender.'.

-- "Booklist"

A fascinating study of an important part of our recent past.

-- "The Nation"