William E. French's innovative study of courtship practice and family formation examines love letters of everyday folk within the framework of literacy studies and explores how love letters functioned culturally and legally. French begins by situating love letters in the context of the legal system, which protected the moral order of families and communities and also perpetuated the gender orderthe foundation of power structures in Mexican society. He then examines reading and writing practices in the communities that the letters came from: mining camps, villages, small towns, and the passionate public sphere that served as the wider social context for the love le
Trade Review“Gracefully written, convincingly argued, and accessible to nonspecialists, this book is equally well suited to graduate seminars and undergraduate courses in Mexican history as well as specialized history and/or theory courses on love, courtship, gender relations, and the written word.”—Robert M. Buffington,
The Historian“Surprising, intriguing, and sophisticated. . . . This is masterful scholarship with an undercurrent of playfulness.”—William H. Beezley, coeditor of The Oxford History of Mexico
“This is a deeply learned book, the mature work of a widely read, accomplished, and innovative historian.”—Ann S. Blum, author of Domestic Economies: Family, Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884–1943
Table of ContentsHeading (Acknowledgments)
Introduction: The Heart in the Glass Jar
Section 1: The Letter of the Law
Section 2: The Lettered Countryside
Section 3: The Body of the Letter
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
