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What "Dear Abby" Tells Us About American Marriage

Journalist Charles Hardy and University of Georgia historian Deborah Herman both reflect on the history and impact of advice columns on the lives of bourgeois American women. Herman looks at six months' worth of Dear Abby columns in the 1950s to determine the state of and attitudes toward marriage during that decade.

25:47
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Other segments from the episode on May 26, 1982

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, May 26, 1982: Commentary on the "Dear Abby" Advice Column; Interview with Margo Howard.
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27:48

A Daughter Reflects on "Dear Abby"

Margo Howard, the daughter of the advice columnist Ann Landers, has written a new book about her mother. She joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss the growth of the the Dear Abby column's popularity and Landers' changing views over the decades.

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