"Modern Love traces the trajectory of this new model of personal relationships over the course of the twentieth century, from its emergence out of the crucible of the suffrage campaign through its reshaping by the women's liberation movement to its recent encounters with New Laddism and Girl Power. It explores its impact on smut-merchants, warring couples and hormonally-charged teenagers and its reception by such diverse figures as Bertrand Russell and Germaine Greer. And it considers how the growing emphasis on the individual has questioned the very value of love by suggesting that there exists a trade-off between intimacy and independence."--BOOK JACKET.