Strimpel, Zoe (2017) Computer dating in the 1970s: dateline and the making of the modern British single. Contemporary British History, 31 (3). pp. 319-342. ISSN 1361-9462

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Abstract

The British matchmaking industry expanded sharply after 1970. This article focuses on the formative years of its most successful representative, the computer dating agency Dateline. Through attention to Dateline’s marketing in the late 1970s, I explore the ways in which new vocabularies of ‘scientific’ expertise were used to forge a ‘modern’ romantic sensibility. After setting Dateline’s success in the context social–sexual change, I explore its two main claims to authority—the computer and the empirical insights of psychology—suggesting that the invitation to embrace but also to control fate foreshadowed the pressures facing singles into the twenty-first century.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > History
Depositing User:	Zoe Strimpel
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2017 11:32
Last Modified:	24 Aug 2018 01:00
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/66970

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