Sources on Courtship and Marriage
Compiled by Sarah Wadsworth (Marquette University) based on recommendations from members of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) listserve
- Abbott, Elizabeth. A History of Marriage: From Same Sex Unions to Private Vows and Common Law, The Surprising Diversity of a Tradition. Toronto: Penguin, 2010.
- Bailey, Beth L. From Front Porch to Back to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.
- Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Viking, 2005.
- Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2000.
- John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman’s Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2012.
- duCille, Ann. The Coupling Convention: Sex, Text, and Tradition in Black Women’s Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
- Foster, Frances Smith. ’Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African America. New York: Oxford UP, 2010.
- –ed., Love and Marriage in Early African America. Hanover, NH: UP of New England, 2008.
- Hartog, Hendrik. Man and Wife in America: A History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002.
- Lystra, Karen. Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.
- Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1985.
- Scanzoni, Letha, and John Scanzoni. Men, Women and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
- Tracey, Karen. Plots and Proposals: American Women’s Fiction, 1850-90. Urbana ad Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2000.
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