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Sin, Sex and Subversion
- How What Was Taboo in 1950s New York Became America's New Normal
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
During the tumultuous 1950s in America, sex was as threatening to the nation's moral order as communism. New York was the capital of the post-World War II world and the epicenter of a fierce culture war over music, theatre, movies, fashion, and literature, as well as birth control, homosexuality, adolescent sex, pornography, and prostitution. Over the last half-century, America's social life - especially notions of culture, sexuality, and politics - has fundamentally changed, and what were once sinful or subversive sexual practices have been integrated into the marketplace, irreversibly changing American moral values; the once illicit has become an industry of more than $50 billion.
Drawing on first-person interviews, unpublished memoirs, newspaper accounts, contemporary studies, government documents, and recent scholarship, Sin, Sex & Subversion argues that "deviant" sexuality was subversive, and that unique New York "outsiders" of the 1950s set the stage for the following decades and the world we know today. In each chapter, author David Rosen examines a critical moral issue through an in-depth profile of figures such as Liberace, Samuel Roth, Bettie Page, the Rosenbergs, and others. Through these individuals, Rosen shows how those who operated outside the law or who challenged popular values, even if they were silenced in their time, ended up paving the way for a new normal.
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What listeners say about Sin, Sex and Subversion
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-12-20
Interesting, Repetitive, and Annoying Narration
So hard to finish. Starts strong with a lot of interesting info; the middle gets confusing when the author begins telling us the end of the story then goes back to beginning , th3re we literally and the inconsistent affectation, in
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- Ken Hamblin Sr
- 11-17-20
Captivating
While not to be taken as historical gospel this book does a tremendous job of filling in the dark spots in Gotham’s history. 👍🏾
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- Randy
- 03-10-21
Possibly the most biased spin on history ever written
Some interesting points and historical references buried in far left sometimes comical selections of included “facts” and innuendo while passing over completely or downplaying far more convincing facts refuting the author’s politically biased point of view. An excellent study of leftist propaganda.
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