Tort Tales, Gold Diggers, and the Crusade against Heart Balm
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6079167 |
|---|---|
| Authors | B Donovan (0000-0002-7237-7320, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 394-410 |
| Publication date | 2020-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Family History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0363-1990 • E-ISSN: 1552-5473 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0363199020937761 |
| OpenAlex | W3040353436 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Beginning in the early 1930s, US citizens made a concerted effort to ban lawsuits for breach of promise, seduction, criminal conversation, and alienation of affection. By 1940, ten states had outlawed so-called heart balm torts. Yet there is no empirical evidence that rates of heart balm lawsuits were increasing. This article analyzes 1930s media representations to show how the movement against heart balm grew from “tort tales” about allegedly outrageous lawsuits. Heart balm narratives drew from stylized representations of “gold diggers” found in popular culture, and they reflected divisions around gender and social class exacerbated by the Great Depression
Affection · Art · Conversation · Criminology · Economics · Great Depression · Liability · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Tort · Communication · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |