Love's next meeting : the forgotten history of homosexuality and the left in American culture /
Lecklider, Aaron.
Love's next meeting : the forgotten history of homosexuality and the left in American culture / Aaron S. Lecklider. - Oakland, Calif. : University of California Press, ©2021. - xv, 354 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-344) and index.
Introduction: Deviant politics -- "Flaunting the transatlantic breeze": sexual dissidents on the left -- "After sex, what?": politicizing sex on the left -- "To be one with the people": homosexuality and the cultural front -- "If I can die under you": homosexuality and labor on the left -- "Socialism & sex is what I want": women, gender, and sexual dissidence in the 1930s and 1940s -- "Playing the queers": homosexuality in proletarian literature -- "We who are not ill": queer antifascism -- "The secret element of their vice": deviant politics in the Cold War.
"Well before Stonewall, a broad cross section of sexual dissidents took advantage of their space on the margins of American society to throw themselves into leftist campaigns. Sensitive already to sexual marginalization, they also saw how class inequality was exacerbated by the Great Depression, witnessing the terrible bread lines and bread riots of the era. They participated in radical labor campaigns, sympathized like many with the early, prewar Soviet Union, contributed to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, opposed US police and state harassment, fought racial discrimination, and aligned themselves with the dispossessed. Whether they were themselves straight, gay, or otherwise queer, they brought sexual dissidence and radicalism into conversation at the height of the Left's influence on American culture. Combining rich archival research with inventive analysis of art and literature, [the book] explores the relationship between homosexuality and the Left in American culture between 1920 and 1960. [The author] uncovers a lively cast of individuals and dynamic expressive works revealing remarkably progressive engagement with homosexuality among radicals, workers, and the poor.... [The book] cuts to the heart of some of the biggest questions in American history: questions about socialism, about sexuality, about the supposed clash still making the headlines today between leftist politics and identity politics."--Abridged from publisher description.
9780520381421 0520381424
2020045477
Homosexuality--Political aspects--History--United States--20th century.
Right and left (Political science)--History--United States--20th century.
HQ76.3.U5 / L59 2021
306.76/60973
Love's next meeting : the forgotten history of homosexuality and the left in American culture / Aaron S. Lecklider. - Oakland, Calif. : University of California Press, ©2021. - xv, 354 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-344) and index.
Introduction: Deviant politics -- "Flaunting the transatlantic breeze": sexual dissidents on the left -- "After sex, what?": politicizing sex on the left -- "To be one with the people": homosexuality and the cultural front -- "If I can die under you": homosexuality and labor on the left -- "Socialism & sex is what I want": women, gender, and sexual dissidence in the 1930s and 1940s -- "Playing the queers": homosexuality in proletarian literature -- "We who are not ill": queer antifascism -- "The secret element of their vice": deviant politics in the Cold War.
"Well before Stonewall, a broad cross section of sexual dissidents took advantage of their space on the margins of American society to throw themselves into leftist campaigns. Sensitive already to sexual marginalization, they also saw how class inequality was exacerbated by the Great Depression, witnessing the terrible bread lines and bread riots of the era. They participated in radical labor campaigns, sympathized like many with the early, prewar Soviet Union, contributed to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, opposed US police and state harassment, fought racial discrimination, and aligned themselves with the dispossessed. Whether they were themselves straight, gay, or otherwise queer, they brought sexual dissidence and radicalism into conversation at the height of the Left's influence on American culture. Combining rich archival research with inventive analysis of art and literature, [the book] explores the relationship between homosexuality and the Left in American culture between 1920 and 1960. [The author] uncovers a lively cast of individuals and dynamic expressive works revealing remarkably progressive engagement with homosexuality among radicals, workers, and the poor.... [The book] cuts to the heart of some of the biggest questions in American history: questions about socialism, about sexuality, about the supposed clash still making the headlines today between leftist politics and identity politics."--Abridged from publisher description.
9780520381421 0520381424
2020045477
Homosexuality--Political aspects--History--United States--20th century.
Right and left (Political science)--History--United States--20th century.
HQ76.3.U5 / L59 2021
306.76/60973