David Rosen Writes

on sex, politics & American life

drwrites

Publications – 1996-1986

  • “Entertainment,” in Antone F. Alber, ed., Multimedia: A Management Perspective (Belmont, CA: International Thompson, 1996).
  • “Independents & the Digital Video Future,” NVReports, Fall 1996.
  • “Theatrical Distribution of Feature Films,” in Morrie Warshawski, ed., The Next Step: Distributing Independent Films & Videos (New York: FIVF, 1995).
  • “Distribution of the Digital Video Media: A Technology Primer for Independent Producers and Distributors,” NVReports, November 1995.
  • “KQED Multimedia Publishing: A Strategic Market Analysis,” KQED/San Francisco, 1995.
  • “Technological Innovation & the Role of the Humanities,” Humanities (California Council for the Humanities), Fall 1994.
  • “Technology: The Virtues of CD-ROM,” Foundation News, July-August 1994.
  • “Welcome to Your Future,” San Francisco Focus, November 1993.
  • “Crossover: Hispanic Specialty Films in the U.S. Movie Marketplace,” in Chicanos and Film: Representation and Resistance, Chon Noriega, ed. (University of Minnesota Press, 1992).
  • “High Fiber: Fiber Optic Technology,” Off-Hollywood Report, Winter 1992.
  • “Interactive Compact Disc,” NVReports, Winter 1992.
  • “High Fiber, High Impact: High Fiber Technology, Independent Lobbying,” Off-Hollywood Report, Spring 1992.
  • “Fiber Optics and the Future of Television,” NVReports, Winter 1991.
  • “The World on a Disc: The Introduction of Interactive Media,” Commodore Interactive, 1991.
  • “Independent Features: Foundation Support for Narrative Film” (with Nancy Sher), Benton Foundation Bulletin, May 1990.
  • “Going Theatrical: Theatrical Distribution of Independent Films,” in Morrie Warshawski, ed., The Next Step: Distributing Independent Films & Videos (New York: AIVF/FIVF, 1989).
  • “Expanding Interactive Media, New Observations, October 1 – November 14, 1989.
  • “The Electronic Home in the Year 2000,” Center for Advertising Services, Interpublic Group, March 1989.
  • “Financing Specialty Films, Hollywood Reporter, August 11, 1987.
  • Executive Editor, CD-I News, LINK Resources, 1986-1989.
  • “History in the Making: A Report from Microsoft’s First International Conference on CD-ROM” (with James Schamus), Educational Technology, July 1986.
  • “Prime Time: Show Devant!” (with Gail Harper), de visu, Printemps 1986.

Publications — 2010-2006

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

 

 

 

Off-Hollywood

Off-Hollywood:  The Making & Marketing of Independent Films
 (Grove Press)

ISBN-10: 0802131875. ISBN-13: 978-0802131874

Off Hollywood

Off-Hollywood was originally commissioned by the Sundance Institute and the Independent Feature Project (IFP) and remains the only detailed analysis based on proprietary marketing, performance and financial data.

To Purchase Off-Hollywood, go to Amazon

Sex Scandal America

Sex Scandal America: Politics & The Ritual of Public Shaming
 (Key Publishing)

ISBN-10: 0978252683, ISBN-13: 978-0978252687

Sex Scandal America

The nature of sex scandals has changed since the first days of the nation’s founding four centuries ago. Barack Obama, the child of an inter-racial marriage, is president; Ronald Reagan, a divorcee, was elected president; Thomas Jefferson’s relation with Sally Hemings or John Kennedy’s affairs with Marilyn Monroe and many others are part of presidential lore; and Bill Clinton’s “sex” with Monica Lewinsky was a political and not a sex scandal. Sex and sex scandals have changed as the nation changed and Sex Scandal America considers the social function of sex scandal and how this function has changed since America’s founding.

To Purchase Sex Scandal America, click on you favorite bookseller: Key Publishing or Amazon

Sin, Sex & Subversion

Sin, Sex & Subversion

Sin, Sex & Subversion:  How What Was Taboo in 1950s New York Became America’s New Normal, (Carrel Books, February 2016)  ISBN-13: 978-1631440441, ISBN-10: 1631440446

Nominated for the 2017 Bonnie and Vern Bullough Book Award by the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (FSSS). 

He who transgresses not only breaks a rule.
  He goes somewhere that the others are not;
 and he knows something the others don’t know.  Susan Sontag

Sin, Sex & Subversion is an unorthodox historical tale. It argues that during the tumultuous 1950s, sex was as threatening to the nation’s moral order as communism. New York was the epicenter of two “wars“ — a “cold war” waged against subversion and a “hot war” against sin. Today, the once forbidden has become the new normal.

Sin, Sex & Subversion juxtaposes key 21st century moral concerns to episodes fought out in the ‘50s. Each chapter is anchored in the experience of a leading social “outsider,” a person who illuminates the social struggles over moral values then taking place. Among the issues and personalities — and their link to 21st century values – to be considered are the following.

Each chapter is grounded in a person who can best be described as an “outsider,” someone who pushed the boundaries of moral order.

To Purchase Sin, Sex & Subversion, click on you favorite bookseller: Carrel Books or Amazon.

Sex Matters

The following are articles I’ve published — with links — over the last decade that explore the issue of sex, politics and American life.

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Studies

  • Pornography and the Erotic Phantasmagoria, Sexuality & Culture, accepted, July 29, 2022; https://trebuchet.public.springernature.app/get_content/7cee1373-1094-4fe7-ad56-978c7756b514

  • America’s Broadband Crisis: Making of a 21st Century Cartel, Monthly Review, September 23, 2021.https://mronline.org/2021/09/23/americas-broadband-crisis-the-making-of-a-twenty-first-century-cartel/

  • “Sex Wars: How Sexual Pleasure Became a $50 Billion Industry and Subverted the Culture Wars,” Sexuality, Gender & Policy, vol 2, no. 1, June 27, 2019.  https://doi.org/10.1002/sgp2.12004

  • “Secrets of the Sexual Fetish: How Sin Became the New Normal,” Logos, a journal of modern society & culture, Summer 2016, Vol. 15, Nos. 2-3.; http://logosjournal.com/2016/rosen/

  • “Sexual Terrorism,” Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia on Gender and Sexuality (2016); http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118663219.wbegss004/full

  • Sexting & the Pornographic Imagination — Where the “Digital Pubic, Digital Private” Intersect PP Presentation, “Media In Transition,” MIT Media Lab, 2013. MiT-Sexting.pdf
  • “Sexual Politics in the Age of Obama: Assessing Obama’s First Term,” in Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, ed. Jeffrey St. Clair (AK Press, 2012); http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849351104/counterpunchmaga

  • “’130 Parties in 30 Days” in The Political Edge, ed. Chris Carlsson (City Lights Books, 2004).

 

Reviews

2024

  • Empire of Purity: The History of Americans’ Global War on Prostitution, by Eva Payne, New York Journal of Books, December 28, 2024.
  • Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People – and the Fight To Resist It by Ari Berman, New York Journal of Books, May 27, 2024.
  • Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr, New York Journal of Books,  April 29, 2024.
  • Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by Ingrid Robeyns, New York Journal of Books, March 5, 2024
  • American Poly: A History by Christopher M. Gleason, New York Journal of Books, January 22, 2024.

2023

  • Fag Hag by Lola Miesseroff.  New York Journal of Books, October 3, 2023.

  • Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, author of The Joy of Sex by Eric Laursen. New York Journal of Books, August 22, 2023.

  • Up Against the Real: Black Mask and the Art of Action, by Nadja Millner-Larsen, New York Journal of Books, March 7, 2023.

  • Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – and What Comes Next, by Bradley Onishi, New York Journal of Books, February 16, 2023.

2022

  • Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire by Jonathan M. Katz, New York Journal of Books, February 14, 2022.
  • The Next Civil War:  Dispatches from the American Future by Stephen Marche, New York Journal of Books, February 4, 2022.

2021

  • Julian Assange in His Own Words, compiled and edited by Karen Sharp, New York Journal of Books, December 14, 2021.
  • Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age by Debbie Applegate, New York Journal of Books, November 29, 2021.
  • America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton, New York Journal of Books, May 24, 2021.
  • The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Quest to End Deafness by Katie Booth, New York Journal of Books, April 5, 2021.

2020

  • White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America’s Racist History by Jane Dailey, New York Journal of Books, November 24, 2020.
  • The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America’s Middle Class by Jim Tankersley, New York Journal of Books, September 11, 2020.
  • In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Actions by Vicky Osterwell, New York Journal of Books, September 2, 2020.
  • What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo: Essays on Sex, Authority and the Mess of Life by JoAnn Wypijewski, New York Journal of Books, July 9, 2020.
  • The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart, New York Journal of Books, March 19, 2020.

2019

  • A Warning by Annoymous, New York Journal of Books, December 23, 2019.
  • American Radicals: How 19th Century Protest Shaped the Nation by Holly Jackson, New York Journal of Books, October 7, 2019.
  • The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion by Robin Marty and Jessica Mason Pieklo, New York Journal of Books, August 31, 2019.
  • We’re Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America by Jennifer M. Silva, New York Journal of Books, August 15, 2019, 2019.
  • Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America by Christopher Leonard, New York Journal of Books, August 12, 2019, 2019.
  • After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism: Taking Back a Revolution by Lynn Chancer; New York Journal of Books, February 5, 2019.
  • Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty; New York Journal of Books, January 21, 2019.

2018

  • Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That is Shaping the Next Economy by Nathan Schneider; New York Journal of Books, October 17, 2018.
  • Giants: The Global Power Elite by Peter Phillips; New York Journal of Books, October 3, 2018.
  • The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato; New York Journal of Books, September 25, 2018.
  • The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison “Promiscuous” Women by Scott W. Stern; New York Journal of Books, June 26, 2018.
  • The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis; New York Journal of Books, March 13, 20018.

2017

  • The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition by Linda Gordon; New York Journal of Books, December 17, 2017.
  • The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido by David Friend; New York Journal of Book, November 3, 2017.
  • True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Emily Skidmore; New York Journal of Books, October 2, 2017.
  • Sex in the Digital Age, Paul Nixon and Isabel K. Düsterhöft, eds., (Routledge, 2017); New York Journal of Books, September 25, 2018
  • The War on Sex, David M. Halperin and Trevor Hoppe, eds; New York Journal of Book, June 5, 2017.
  • Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics by Kim Phillips-Fein; New York Journal of Book, May 26, 2017.
  • Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century, by Geoffrey R. Stone; New York Journal of Books, April 11, 2017.
  • Respectability on Trial: Sex Crimes in New York City, 1900–1918 by Brian Donovan; New York Journal of Books, March 20, 2017.  
  • Suspect Freedoms: The Racial and Sexual Politics of Cubanidad in New York, 1823-1957 by Nancy Raquel Mirabel; New York Review of Books, February 13, 2017.

2016

  • Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism, by Chris Jennings (review), Sexuality & Culture, 20, no 2 (June 2016).
  • The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s, Mariah Adlin (review), Sexuality and Culture, #20, v. 1, pp. 192-94 (January 2016).

2013

  • Pinkerton’s Great Detective: The Amazing Life and Times of James McParland by Beau Riffenburgh; The Brooklyn Rail, December 2013.
  • Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker; The Brooklyn Rail, September 2013.
  • Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, 
Corporate Power, and Public Resistance by Heidi Boghosian; The Brooklyn Rail, September 2013.
  • The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village by John Strausbaug; The Brooklyn Rail, June 2013.
  • Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom and the Anti-Communist Purge by Marjorie Heins; The Brooklyn Rail, April 2013.
  • Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America by Nancy Cohen; The Brooklyn Rail, February 2013.

2012

  • New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham by Steven Jaffe; The Brooklyn Rail, September 2012.
  • Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks; The Brooklyn Rail, May 2012.
  • Carl Van Vechten & the Harlem Renaissance by Emily Bernard and Jews and Booze by Marni Davis; The Brooklyn Rail, April 2012.
  • Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality by Margot Weiss; The Brooklyn Rail, March 2012.
  • Adventures in the Orgasmatron:
 How the Sexual Revolution Came to America by Christopher Turner; The Brooklyn Rail, February 2012.

2011

  • Capital of the World:
 A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties by David Wallace; Brooklyn Rail,October 2011.
  • Stayin’ Alive: the 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class by Jefferson Cowie;
 Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below During the Long 1970s by Aaron Brenner, Robert Brenner and Cal Winslow; and The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, Dan Berger, ed.; The Brooklyn Rail, July-August, 2011
  • The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy by Lisa Dodson; Brooklyn Rail, May 2011
  • The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom by Evgeny Morozov; The Brooklyn Rail, April 2011.
  • Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson; The Brooklyn Rail, March 2011.
  • A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell; The Brooklyn Rail, February 2011.