“It was an era when arranged marriages, especially among the wealthy, were giving way to the choices of young hearts. Kenslea’s nonfiction narrative account of the role of marriage choices in this brave new world is an American incursion into Jane Austen territory.”
—Robert Knox, Boston Globe
“The Sedgwicks, a well-known western New England family, provide Kenslea with ample material from which to recount the post-Revolutionary generation’s experiences with love, courtship, engagement, and marriage. His deft and insightful look at five marriages, four courtships, and one prolonged engagement draws back the curtain on the emotional life of northern elites. . . . Kenslea provides a narrative that vividly illustrates the shifts in marital ideologies and their significance for couples in the early nineteenth century. . . . Kenslea treats his subjects with affection, allowing readers to share the Sedgwicks’ easy intimacy and deliciously snide remarks. . . . His work on female middle-class sociability and courtship rules in practice, most notably in the chapters about a set of Boston women collectively known as ‘the friendlies,’ is especially good. . . . Timothy Kenslea’s deeply researched and gracefully written book will be of interest to those working in the fields of family history, the history of intimacy, and New England history. Readers outside academia also will enjoy his strong narrative style and finely drawn characters.”
—Bridgett Williams-Searle, H-SHEARH-Net Discussion Network for the Scholars of the History of the Early American Republic, April 24, 2007.
“Timothy Kenslea’s sensitive and thoughtful study of The Sedgwicks in Love demonstrates that intergenerational family history illuminates unexpected facets of male-female relationships. . . . [T]his fascinating and well-told story provides much food for thought, and reminds historians that the small and idiosyncratic worlds that we call ‘family’ both convey and shape the broader culture’s values.”
—Martha Tomhave Blauvelt, Journal of Social History 40, no. 4, Summer2007.
“Kenslea tells these stories well, making the book a delight for readers of history. He selected and arranged the material in a way that usefully sheds light on this subject. . . . [A] captivating and suggestive read.”
—C. Dallett Hemphill, The Journal of American History 93, no. 4, March 2007.
“What is most fascinating about Kenslea’s book is his portrait of the awkward dance of courtship conducted in the company of peers and siblings. . . . What emerges is a striking portrait of a generational mindset.”
—Rodney Hessinger, The New England Quarterly 79, no. 4, December 2006.
“The mortar that gives structure and depth to Kenslea’s mosaic is his deep sympathy for, and reading in, the era’s social, political, and artistic culture. . . . He has breathed life into it in this learned, sympathetic, and wisely unsentimental book about how men and women once practiced love.”
—Ben Birnbaum, Boston College Magazine, Winter 2006.
“Timothy Kenslea’s work on the Sedgwick family of Berkshire County offers a sophisticated analysis of how American marriages changed during the post-Revolutionary generation. By focusing on the long courtship of Harry Sedgwick and Janet Minot, Kenslea provides an absorbing account of how members of the new generation constructed their own ideals of marriage, and prepared themselves for a more affectionate type of personal relationship.”
—Thomas H. O’Connor, University Historian, Boston College; author, The Hub: Boston Past and Present and Boston A to Z
“Kenslea writes with elegance and sympathy about the private lives of a notable American family. In these thoughtful, moving studies of courtship and marriage, he illuminates both the particular culture of the early United States and some of the more enduring issues of intimate relationships.”
—Michael McGerr, Professor of History, Indiana University–Bloomington; author, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920
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