Why read Love for Sale?

Book cover of Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900-1945

Book description

The intense urbanization and industrialization of America's largest city from the turn of the twentieth century to World War II was accompanied by profound shifts in sexual morality, sexual practices, and gender roles. Comparing prostitution and courtship with a new working-class practice of heterosexual barter called ""treating"", Elizabeth Alice Clement…

Explore

Topics

Genres

American history

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Love for Sale as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

John C. Spurlock

Author

Clement explores the working class environment that produced what we think of as “normal” relations between young men and women.

The commonly used term at the time, “treating,” has disappeared. But in the early 20th century this practice, which shared some features with prostitution, turned a search for fun, gendered scripts, and wage discrepancies between men and women into the general model of what would become the classic practice of dating.

From John's list on The best books for understanding American heterosexuality.