The Gilded Age Construction of Modern American Homophobia

by J. Hatheway

Overview

The Gilded Age Construction of American Homophobia is an analysis of the negative response to the discovery of the homosexual in late Nineteenth century America. In this period of social distress, many Americans came to doubt the underlying assumptions of national progress. If the United States were to remain true to its promise of earthly perfection, then the forces of social disharmony had to be overcome. Homosexuality, however, challenged the very notions of order and progress. This book investigates the responses of the emergent medical community to this problem, and concludes with a discussion of how the negative reception of the homosexual impacted the future social conception of gay men and women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312234928
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	08/01/2003
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

JAY HATHEWAY is Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at Edgewood College at Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to having authored Guilty as Charged: the True Story of a Gay Beret (2001), he also testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Military Forces and Personnel in 1993: 'Gays and Lesbian in the Military'.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Origins of a National Ideology up to the Civil War The Rise of an Urban Middle Class in the Post Civil War Era Nineteenth Century Gay America A Period of Turmoil and Change Nineteenth Century American Medicine The Debate Between Alienism and Neurology The German Discovery of the Homosexual American Physicians Discover the Homosexual The Homosexual and the Physician: the 1890s A Homosexual Identity During the Gilded Age The Limits of Congenital Homosexuality Conclusion