Chapter 1, Calling Cards and Money Summary and Analysis

Before the mid-1920s, a system of 'calling' was used to link women and men. Dating replaced it soon thereafter, moving courtship from community events to restaurants, theatres and dance halls. There was no implied supervision of the private sphere, where family and community could watch. Also, the public world required money and so men's money became the basis of the dating system. By the 1950s Americans began to think dating was universal though it was only three decades old. Some wanted the old system to return, but the new system was lauded by most and seen as innocent.

By the late nineteenth century, a new and coherent social group started to drive American cultural life, which was the new middle class that arose during the industrial revolution. Magazines and newspapers in this...