Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Season: A Social History of the Debutante
The Season: A Social History of the Debutante | Kristen Richardson
5 posts | 4 read | 1 reading | 9 to read
In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage. Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem. The story begins in England six hundred years ago when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters. Elizabeth Is exclusive presentations at her court expanded into Londons full season of dances, dinners, and courting, extending eventually to the many corners of the British empire and beyond. Richardson traces the social seasons of young women on both sides of the Atlantic, from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Whartons New York back to England, where debutante daughters of Gilded Age millionaires sought to marry British aristocrats. She delves into Jazz Age debuts, carnival balls in the American South, and the reimagined ritual of elite African American communities, which offers both social polish and academic scholarships. The Season shares the captivating stories of these young women, often through their words from diaries, letters, and interviews that Richardson conducted at contemporary balls. The debutantes give voice to an array of complex feelings about being put on display, about the young men they meet, and about what their future in society or as wives might be. While exploring why the debutante tradition persistsand why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nationsRichardson has uncovered its extensive cultural influence on the lives of daughters in Britain and the US and how they have come to marry.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
Nitpickyabouttrains
post image
Pickpick

Nonfiction about the history of coming out balls and debutantes. Super interesting.

13 likes2 stack adds
blurb
Fable
post image

Haven‘t been able to read much until this whole virus thing happened. Now that I have substantial amounts of free time, I have selected my “QuaranTBR.”

blurb
Fable
post image

Sick day reading~

Lreads I hope you feel better soon. 💕 5y
10 likes1 comment
quote
NotCool
post image

“Brenda‘s mother violated long-established etiquette that one never wore a tiara inside a hotel”