Romantic Longings: Love in America, 1830-1980

by Steven Seidman

In Romantic Longings Steven Seidman offers an original perspective on the origins and current meaning of the American intimate culture. Drawing on a wide range of sources--sex surveys, advice literature, autobiographies, novels--he charts a change from a Victorian spiritual ideal to efforts by current reformers to sexualize love. Stressing that contemporary notions of intimacy are grounded in twentieth-century historical developments, he observes the birth of a culture of eroticism in the post-World War II years--a culture where sexuality is conceived as both a sphere of love and intimacy and a domain of pleasure and self-expression.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1991

Reviews

[m · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chapters 1, 2 & 5 were good; the others less so.