Modern LoveMy ideas of romance came from the movies, said Woody Allen, and it is to the moviesas well as to novels, advice columns, and self help booksthat David Shumway turns for his history of modern love. Modern Love argues that a crisis in the meaning and experience of marriage emerged when it lost its institutional function of controlling the distribution of property, and instead came to be seen as a locus for feelings of desire, togetherness, and loss.