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Beth L. Bailey
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From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America Paperback – Illustrated, August 1, 1989

by Beth L. L. Bailey (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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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.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Johns Hopkins University Press
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 1989
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    5.88 x 0.47 x 9 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    9780801839351
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0801839351
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

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

From the Back Cover

'One day, the 1920s story goes, a young man asked a city girl if he might call on her. We know nothing else about the man or the girl--only that, when he arrived, she had her hat on. Not much of a story to us, but any American born before 1910 would have gotten the punch line. 'She had her hat on': those five words were rich in meaning to early twentieth-century Americans. The hat signaled that she expected to leave the house. He came on a 'call, ' expecting to be received in her family's parlor, to talk, to meet her mother, perhaps to have some refreshments or to listen to her play the piano. She expected a 'date, ' to be taken 'out' somewhere and entertained. He ended up spending four weeks' savings fulfilling her expectations.'--from From Front Porch to Back Seat

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0801839351
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press; Illustrated edition (August 1, 1989)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780801839351
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801839351
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 0.47 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

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Beth L. Bailey

Beth L. Bailey

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John H. Harvey
5.0 out of 5 stars Another world
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2013
Verified Purchase
This book represents excellent, perceptive work. It puts in sharp contrast that world of courting in the 30s-60s vis a' vis the current world of social media facilitated relating, hook ups and the like.
5 people found this helpful
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Crystal
5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Historical Perspective
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2000
Ms Bailey writes of 20th century courtship from the 1920's or so onwards. Discussing those elements that changed social conventions and permissible actions (such as the car) she vividly discusses the evolution of courtship, and with it sexuality throughtout the 20th century. A fun read for kicks, and a fabulous resource for historians researching the evolution in dating.
7 people found this helpful
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Lionel S. Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars An Acedemic History of Dating From 1900-1960
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
Dating is something that is so ubiquitous to society that it almost goes unnoticed. Almost everyone has done it with varying amounts of success and if we are lucky it even ends in finding a lifetime partner. But dating like most human institutions is an amorphous idea that has changed with society and the attitudes customs around gender and the proper role of men and women in society. In her book, Baily seeks to trace how this institution has changed over time arguing that to understand dating you also have to understand the changes in the economy and the expected roles of men and women in that changing economy. To take on this vast subject Baily focuses on middle-class cis-gendered white young people during this time period and relies heavily on advice columns college newspapers as well as letters and interviews from young people at the time. She also covers young teens just starting to date to a lesser extent.
The main conclusion Baily reaches is that dating changed with changing patterns of consumption which resulted in different expectations of behavior from each partner. An activity originally thought of as courting and centered in the woman's home giving her and her parents more control over the activity would shift outside the home to a more public setting giving more license to the man. As the name suggests this would often lead to fooling around in parked cars which developed their own expectations often putting an undue burden on the lady.
The author does a good job of using the sources to tease out the changing attitudes on dating and courtship and while many of the attitude and view on relations between the sexes that she cites seem extremely dated and even dangerous in our time period, the author does a good job of putting them in their proper historical context and the criticism that was leveled at them during that time. I would have liked to see her research expanded out to other groups such as working-class young people and non-white young people but I am not sure the available sources would have allowed this and the author makes clear from the beginning that her study will not cover these topics.
As far as I can tell there are not a lot of books on the history of dating but this one is a very good one that is well researched and written and that will hopefully spark more research in this field.
4 people found this helpful
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FarleyFarley
2.0 out of 5 stars DISAPPOINTING.
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2023
Verified Purchase
The author lets her opinions about this, that, and the other rival in sheer number of words the facts she is trying (not very effectively - not a very good writer) to report. Maybe she was trying to expand her material into a book length manuscript.
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Christopher O.
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2015
Verified Purchase
good
One person found this helpful
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Amy
4.0 out of 5 stars Could have used a larger scope
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2010
I appreciate that Bailey mines through a lot of popular culture in describing attitudes about courtship in this book, but I would have liked to have seen more research that delves into the larger trends she touches upon very briefly here. She argues that courtship became seen in economic terms as it went from a private ritual to a public activity-- were there other rituals that followed similar paths? Exactly how influential was Freudian theory on sexuality for the typical college co-ed?

I'm particularly interested in the history of the teenager, which this book was mildly helpful for. If you're more interested in gender relations or 20th-century American culture, you may find this work more meaningful.
5 people found this helpful
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Russell A. Carleton
4.0 out of 5 stars well executed on an intriguing topic
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2006
Bailey does a few things rather well in this book. Courtship and dating makes for an interesting study in the ways in which our culture has changed over the course of the 20th century (although as another reviewer pointed out, an update in which she discusses developments of the 90s would be most welcomed). Her writing is clear, and it's a quick and satisfying read in cultural history. This is one where the title sums up the book nicely, so if you're intrigued, it's probably a good one for you.
6 people found this helpful
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Alex Pronove
4.0 out of 5 stars Informative but it's not light reading.
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2007
I read this as part of my regular research for entries that'll be posted on my blog, [...]

This book, by far, is the most informative and well-researched one yet.

As I implied in my Review Title, the book is written in a very academic style and abounds in footnotes.
2 people found this helpful
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