The Season: A Social History of the Debutante.

Richardson's immersive debut uncovers the surprisingly long history and stylized rituals of the debutante tradition. In America, Richardson writes, the debutante custom reached its apotheosis as the "defining ritual" of the merchant and professional classes. Drawing from the journals and letters of colonial, antebellum, and Gilded Age debutantes, Richardson portrays young women enjoying - or enduring - their "social seasons.". [Extracted from the article]

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