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Awards
Overview"This text introduces Mary Hammon and Sara Norman, who were found guilty in 17th-century Massachusetts of ""lewd behavior each with the other upon a bed"". The reader also meets Ozaw-wen-dib, a male Chippewa who, in the 1820s, lived as a woman and had many husbands. We find Addie Brown, a freeborn black domestic servant, assuring African-American schoolteacher Rebecca Primus that ""no kisses is like youres"" in the 1860s. The reader also becomes acquainted with ACT-UP, Queer Nation and the ""tasty and dramatic"" Lesbian Avengers. The book, as these examples suggest, is the tale of men desiring men and women loving women through nearly four centuries of American history. Leila Rupp combines an array of scholarship on supposedly discrete episodes in American history into a story of same-sex desire across the country and the centuries. She shows what it means to say that sexuality has a history by pointing to experiences of love and desire that were understood in radically different ways across time, and often in radically different ways by different groups at the same time. She translates the concepts that are central to cutting-edge theories of sexuality into a narrative that explains these concepts in practice." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Leila J. RuppPublisher: The University of Chicago Press Imprint: University of Chicago Press Edition: 2nd ed. Dimensions: Width: 14.60cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.40cm Weight: 0.430kg ISBN: 9780226731551ISBN 10: 0226731553 Pages: 244 Publication Date: 15 November 1999 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Stock Indefinitely Availability: In Print  Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock. Table of ContentsReviewsThe Cliff Notes version of America's queer history, offering in their distilled essence the themes, struggles, and stories of 400 years of same-sex desire in the New World. Rupp (History and Women's Studies/Ohio State Univ.) frames queer history in reasonable and judicious chapters, including considerations of the sexual culture clash between European settlers and indigenous peoples, the same-sex romantic friendships of the 19th century, the social and personal ramifications of the medicalization of homosexuality at the turn of the 20th century, and the emergence of gay communities and organizations up to the present day. The many examples provide strong support and foundation for her argument that same-sex sexuality is a fluid and labile construction, changing and metamorphosing with the cultures it inhabits; however, combining her rigorous historical analysis with personal anecdotes and stories, some more compelling, some more closely tied to the history at hand than others, provides a clumsy narrative link to the history (why does Rupp feel her audience would be interested in her favorite color nail polish?). A Desired Past' s conception as a short history teases the reader, as the book's brief synopses of eras of queer history inevitably leave one wanting more examples and analysis. Nonetheless, if one were to read this only for the flashes of insight it gives into how queer people have negotiated the contours and borders of their cultures to express and to embrace the taboo, the panorama of same-sex life which emerges stands as a sufficiently compelling reward for the effort. In a better world, if teaching the history of sexuality were a politically neutral act rather than a flashpoint issue in the culture wars, this would be an excellent text for high-school and lower-level college history classes. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationLeila J. Rupp is a professor of women's studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of several books, including Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women's Movement and A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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