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.
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