| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Elizabeth Alice Clement. Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945. (Gender and American Culture.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2006. Pp. xiii, 321. Cloth $59.95, paper $21.95.
Courtship, marriage, and sexuality changed dramatically in America during the first half of the twentieth century. Working and middle-class youth rejected parental control in "courtship," creating a peer-defined "dating system." Deserting family parlors, young heterosexuals explored romance and sex in the commercial dance halls, movie theaters, and parks of urban America. Cities also became settings for homosexual subcultures. "Petting" became commonplace in dating, and a growing proportion of dating couples engaged in premarital intercourse. The sexualization and commercialization of courtship provoked anxiety among youth's elders, but older Americans also promoted change, acknowledging love and sexual intimacy as keys to "modern" marriage. Sexuality invited scientific inquiry, and reformers challenged laws prohibiting contraception and sex education. As sexual satisfaction became important in dating and marriage, prostitution moved to society's margins.	1
Elizabeth Alice Clement's book adds detail and analysis to this picture of sweeping change. Clement traces the long-term and wide-spread effects of working-class "treating"—a system of heterosexual barter that peaked before and during World War I—on American society and culture. The willingness of poorly paid working girls to trade sexual favors for the price of a movie ticket, restaurant meal, or fashionable hat became the basis for middle and working-class dating, and for male sexual privilege, in subsequent decades. Treating also marginalized prostitution and contributed to prostitutes' worsening conditions of work. Clement draws on sources from vice societies, municipal courts, women's reformatories, the U.S. War Department, and a host of social scientists. Focusing on one place, New York City, she has produced a history of impressive scope and interpretive power.	. . .

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