"O, perjured lover, atone! atone!": a legal and cultural history of breach of promise to marry, 1880-1940

Through the 1930s, an American woman suffering a broken engagement had the opportunity to sue her erstwhile suitor for breach of promise to marry. Relying on cultural and legal materials, my dissertation uses this now-obsolete cause of action as a lens through which to examine both shifting norms of gender and class during the period from 1890 to 1940 and the means by which Americans expected legal mechanisms to simultaneously shape and respond to socio-cultural changes.