Includes bibliographical references (pages 385-407) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Part I. Courtship and Marriage in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Neither SIngle nor Actually Married: Courtship and Betrothal in a Homosocial World -- A Maie Game of Marriage: The Politics of Big Weddings -- Neither Birth nor Portion Shall Hinder the Match: Clandestine Marriage and Sexual Nonconformity -- Part II. Conflict and Change in the Age of Agrarian and Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850. Better Man of the Two: Changing Relationships between the Sexes, 1750-1850 -- Time Changes Fau'k an' Manners: Private Marriages versus Public Bridals -- Last Stage of Their Hope: From the Celibate to the Conjugal City -- Married but not Churched: Common-Law Marriage and the Renewal of Sexual Nonconformity -- Part III. Era of Mandatory Marriage, 1850-1960. Better a Bad Husband Than No Husband At All: The Compulsion to Marry, 1850-1914 -- Love on the Dole: The Ritualization of Courtship in the Twentieth Century -- Lady Generally Likes White Weddings: Revival of the Big Wedding -- Part IV. Conjugal Myths and Marital Realities, 1960 to the Present. Love and Marriage: The Unresolved Contradiction.