Hearts and Minds: Canadian Romance at the Dawn of the Modern Era, 1900-1930: The West

What was romance like for Canadians a century ago? What qualities did men and women look for in prospective mates? How did they find suitable partners in difficult circumstances such as frontier isolation and parental disapproval? How did courtship proceed in the immediate post-Victorian era, when traditional romantic ideals and etiquette were colliding with the modern realities faced by ordinary people? Examining over 20,000 such letters, Dan Azoulay has produced the first full-length study of Canadian romance in the years 1900 to 1930, a period that witnessed dramatic changes, including massive immigration, rapid urbanization and industrialization, western settlement, a world war that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of young Canadians, and a virtual revolution in morals and manners.