ABSTRACT

Traditional ideologies surrounding marriage were challenged by new ideas surrounding family, love and the role of personal fulfilment throughout the post-war period in Scotland. Through analysis of oral history testimony, insight is gained into the motivations, expectations and other factors which shaped interviewees’ experience of intimate and familial relationships in these years. Important threads of continuity, as well as change, are identified, substantiating the argument that the late 1960s were far from a universal turning point in cultural and social terms. Detailed consideration of the contemporary experience of marriage and family in Scotland facilitates a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which emotions intersected with key economic, social and cultural trends during the late twentieth century.