Love has a history. It has meant different things to different people at different moments and has served different purposes. This book tells the story of love at a crucial point, a moment when the emotional landscape changed dramatically for large numbers of people. It is a story based in England, but informed by America, and covers the period from the end of the First World War until the break-up of The Beatles. To the casual observer, this era was a golden age of marriage. More people married than ever before. They did so at increasingly younger ages. And there was a revolution in our idea of what marriage meant. Pragmatic notions of marriage as institution were superseded by the more romantic ideal of a relationship based upon individual emotional commitment, love, sex, and personal fulfilment. And yet, this new idea of marriage, based on a belief in the transformative power of love and emotion, carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. Romantic love, particularly when tied to sexual satisfaction, ultimately proved an unreliable foundation upon which to build marriages: fatally, it had the potential to evaporate over time and under pressure. Scratching beneath the surface of the apparent 'golden age' of marriage, Claire Langhamer uncovers the real story of love in the twentieth century, via the recollections of ordinary people who lived through the period. It is a tale of quiet emotional instability, persistent subversion, and unsettling change. At its end, the idea of life-long marriage was in serious decline. And, as Langhamer shows, this was a decline directly rooted in the contradictions and tensions that lay at the heart of the emotional revolution itself.

The English in Love: The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution

History

Langhamer, Claire

Europe

Oxford University Press

This study examines the complex relationship between women and leisure, drawing upon recent feminist theory. The text charts the changes in perception, representation and experiences of leisure for women between 1920 and 1960, and relates the changes to life cycle lines.

Women's Leisure in England, 1920-1960 (Studies in Popular Culture)

Manchester University Press

This insightful new book offers a timely assessment of the complex relationship between women and leisure in England, drawing upon recent feminist theory. Departing from approaches which focus on particular activities or institutions, it places everyday experiences at its centre, presenting a wide-ranging and lively account of changing perceptions, representations and experiences of leisure across the period 1920-60.Part one addresses the nature of leisure within womens lives, examining shifting understandings of the concept and identifying areas of definitional ambiguity such as the 'family' holiday, shopping and handicrafts.Part two focuses upon experiences of leisure across the life cycle. It provides a detailed assessment of the particular forms of leisure enjoyed by women at distinct stages of their lives, including cinema-going, dancing, socialising and home-based pursuits. However, these and other forms of leisure are located within a series of overlapping contexts including those of close female friendships, relationships with boyfriends, spouses and children, considerations of personal space and the allocation of time and money. Crucially, the book demonstrates that experiences and perceptions of leisure were fundamentally structured along life cycle lines: leisure in youth was often characterised by freedom and independence whilst leisure in adulthood became a vehicle for service and duty to others.This book will appeal to those with an interest in twentieth century social, cultural and women's/gender history. It also has a very strong cross disciplinary appeal and is likely to attract readers from the fields of sociology, cultural studies, women's studies and leisure studies.

Women's leisure in England 1920–60 (Studies in Popular Culture)

LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE\n___\n'A moving microhistory of working-class girlhood' BBC History Magazine\n___\nIt is 1937 in a northern mill-town and a class of twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls are writing about their lives, their world, and the things that matter to them. They tell of cobbled streets and crowded homes; the Coronation festivities and holidays to Blackpool; laughter and fun alongside poverty and hardship. They are destined for the cotton mill but they dream of being film stars.\nClass of '37 uses the writing of these young girls, as collected by the research organisation Mass Observation, to rediscover this lost world, transporting readers back in time to a smoky industrial town in an era before the introduction of a Welfare State, where once again the clouds of war were beginning to gather. Woven within this rich, authentic history are the twists and turns of the girls' lives from childhood to beyond, from their happiest times to the most heart-breaking of their sorrows.\nA compelling social history, this intimate reconstruction of working-class life in 1930s Britain is a haunting and emotional account of a bygone age.\n___\nPraise for Class of '37\n'A treasure trove of childhood' - i paper\n'A fascinating account' - Bolton News\n'We're used to Mass Observation revealing adult treasures, but to have them from these irrepressible children is doubly rewarding. An engrossing and gently heart-breaking insight into this chatter of still lives before everything changed, and a wonderful rear-view glimpse of their vanishing world' - Simon Garfield\n'Characters [...] shine brightly from every page' - Daily Mail

Class of '37: A wonderful rear-view glimpse of [a] vanishing world

Barron, Hester

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Metro Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Langhamer, Claire. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Langhamer, Claire

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Langhamer, Claire. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The English in Love: The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution

Women's Leisure in England, 1920-1960 (Studies in Popular Culture)

Women's leisure in England 1920–60 (Studies in Popular Culture)

Class of '37: A wonderful rear-view glimpse of [a] vanishing world