A history of Eastern Europe 1918 to the present: modernisation, ideology and nationality

understandings of the self, as ‘matchmakers and the media deployed the concept of social status as flexible, rooted in professional ambition and rank rather than heredity’ (p. 108). Despite this, matchmaking was still viewed with some unease until the rise of internet dating. Strimpel’s book is welcome reading to scholars of gender and sexuality, in addition to those interested in the social and cultural history of late-twentieth-century Britain more broadly. In the closing years of the 1990s, we see dating services approach the mainstream and popular culture increasingly obsessed with the idea of dating, as seen in Bridget Jones’ Diary and Sex and the City. And it is perhaps our pandemic experience, where so much has been ‘mediated’ through screens, that makes Seeking Love in Modern Britain all the more engaging reading as we continue to seek connections.