{"product_id":"men-like-that-a-southern-queer-history-9780226354705","title":"Men Like That: A Southern Queer History","description":"We don't usually associate thriving queer culture with rural America, but John Howard's unparalleled history of queer life in the South persuasively debunks the myth that same-sex desires can't find expression outside the big city. In fact, this book shows that the nominally conservative institutions of small-town life--home, church, school, and workplace--were the very sites where queer sexuality flourished. As Howard recounts the life stories of the ordinary and the famous, often in their own words, he also locates the material traces of queer sexuality in the landscape: from the farmhouse to the church social, from sports facilities to roadside rest areas. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSpanning four decades, \u003ci\u003eMen Like That\u003c\/i\u003e complicates traditional notions of a post-WWII conformist wave in America. Howard argues that the 1950s, for example, were a period of vibrant queer networking in Mississippi, while during the so-called \"free love\" 1960s homosexuals faced aggressive oppression. When queer sex was linked to racial agitation and when key civil rights leaders were implicated in homosexual acts, authorities cracked down and literally ran the accused out of town. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn addition to firsthand accounts, \u003ci\u003eMen Like That\u003c\/i\u003e finds representations of homosexuality in regional pulp fiction and artwork, as well as in the number one pop song about a suicidal youth who jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge. And Howard offers frank, unprecedented assessments of outrageous public scandals: a conservative U.S. congressman caught in the act in Washington, and a white candidate for governor accused of patronizing black transgender sex workers. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe first book-length history of the queer South, \u003ci\u003eMen Like That\u003c\/i\u003e completely reorients our presuppositions about gay identity and about the dynamics of country life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Howard\u003c\/b\u003e is a Lecturer in American studies at King's College, University of London. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eCarryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Bitterweed Path\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50513964761362,"sku":"9780226354705","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a8bc414e-08bb-4b6e-9ff9-4ed4e37337bd.jpg?v=1730969393","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/men-like-that-a-southern-queer-history-9780226354705","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}