In 2023, a broken engagement might be followed by tears, the division of possessions, and a reliance on family and friends. It might even involve a few trips to the therapist. But up until the mid-to-late twentieth century, Australian men and women’s heartbreaks could also see them take a trip to court to charge their partner with breach of promise of marriage.
Alecia Simmonds’s Courting: An ... (read more)
Zoe Smith
Zoe Smith is a PhD candidate in the School of History at the Australian National University. She is a gender historian, currently writing a feminist, social, and cultural history of domestic violence in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria between 1880–1914.