Working-Class Courtship, Marriage and Divorce in Scotland
1855–1939
Book •
Working-Class Courtship, Marriage and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939 presents the first comprehensive, book-length examination of working-class romantic partnerships and family dissolution in Scotland across the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The authors adopt a life-course approach and combine official records with testimony and oral histories to reveal regional and class variations in courtship, cohabitation, illegitimacy, irregular marriage, and divorce.
The book situates working-class practices within broader historiographical debates about the emergence of romantic love, family stability, and changing state regulation of marriage.
It highlights continuities and changes—especially around pragmatic partner choice, gendered expressions of care, and the impact of wartime disruptions—while restoring agency to working-class people.
The study has implications for comparative European and North American histories and challenges assumptions about the 'traditional family' in policy and public discourse.
The authors adopt a life-course approach and combine official records with testimony and oral histories to reveal regional and class variations in courtship, cohabitation, illegitimacy, irregular marriage, and divorce.
The book situates working-class practices within broader historiographical debates about the emergence of romantic love, family stability, and changing state regulation of marriage.
It highlights continuities and changes—especially around pragmatic partner choice, gendered expressions of care, and the impact of wartime disruptions—while restoring agency to working-class people.
The study has implications for comparative European and North American histories and challenges assumptions about the 'traditional family' in policy and public discourse.
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Miranda Melcher
Eleanor Gordon et al., "Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Mentioned by
Miranda Melcher
Eleanor Gordon et al., "Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939" (Oxford UP, 2025)
