Courtship in American History

Abstract

Objectives i. To interpret primary sources. 2. To learn to gather historical data through oral interviews. 3. To compare primary source information with secondary texts. 4. To consider how gender roles can shift from generation to genera tion, and also how individual choices are influenced by family, community, and time period. Background Cour ship and Community The litera ure on courtship has mainly focused on the Euro pean American mainstream and middle-class youth. Using pri mary sources, including novels and short stories, however, can open up issues in racial-ethnic and immigrant communities as well. For example, oral history accounts of young Mexican Ameri can women going to church dances with chaperones, as well as newspaper reports about Japanese American youth club activities in Los Angeles illustrate the allure of popular culture and the expecta tions of immigrant parents in the 1930s. Through much of the twenti eth century, ethnic as well as main stream columnists offered advice about relations with parents and peers, dating, marriage, and social etiquette. Nisei?second-generation Japanese Americans?youth, heat edly debating the merits of versus arranged mar riage, and Jewish American men and women pondering the conse quences of interethnic marriage found a welcoming forum for dis cussion within their ethnic presses. Examining past issues of the Rafu Shimpo, a Los Angeles Japanese daily newspaper, or the Bintel Brief re veals the extent to which many sec ond-generation youth embraced ideals of companionate love and Hoi lywood notions of romance, as well as how they grappled with the strictures of immigrant parents concerned with factors such as compatible family backgrounds and financial stability. These themes still resonate for many present day second-generation youth, as courtship and marriage continue to be subjects of contestation and adaptation. Contemporary sources can also provide an opportunity to examine ideals of courtship and both continuity and change in ideas about men's and women's roles. When I asked my students to analyze songs A dance at the Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California, 1942. (Ansel Adams, photographer. Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)