• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Controlling Sex in Captivity: POWs and Sexual Desire in the United States during the Second World War

Controlling Sex in Captivity: POWs and Sexual Desire in the United States during the Second World War

Hardcover

20th Century United States HistoryGeneral World HistoryWorld War II

ISBN10: 1350060615
ISBN13: 9781350060616
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: Jun 14 2018
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.14
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Controlling Sex in Captivity is the first book to examine the nature, extent and impact of the sexual activities of Axis prisoners of war in the United States during the Second World War.

Historians have so far interpreted the interactions between captors and captives in America as the beginning of the post-war friendship between the United States, Germany and Italy. Matthias Reiss argues that this paradigm is too simplistic. Widespread fraternisation also led to sexual relationships which created significant negative publicity, and some Axis POWs got caught up in the U.S. Army's new campaign against homosexuals.

By focusing on the fight against fraternisation and same-sex activities, this study treads new ground. It stresses that contact between captors and captives was often loaded with conflict and influenced by perceptions of gender and race. It highlights the transnational impact of fraternisation and argues that the prisoners' sojourn in the United States also influenced American society by fuelling a growing concern about social disintegration and sexual deviancy, which eventually triggered a conservative backlash after the war.

1 different editions

Also available

Also in

20th Century United States History