Cultural Affairs / Gender Issues

Independence, Kentucky, U.S.A.: Routledge, 1991. No Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. There can be no culture without the transvestite." Beginning with this bold claim, Marjorie Garber explores the nature and significance of cross-dressing and of the West's recurring fascination with it. Vested Interests is a tour de force of cultural criticism; its investigations range across history, literature, film, photography, and popular and mass culture, from Shakespeare to Mark Twain, from Oscar Wilde to Peter Pan, from transsexual surgery to transvestite 'sororities' to Madonna and Flip Wilson, Valentino and Elvis. What Garber asks, does clothing have to do with sexuality? How do dress codes contribute to the organization of society? How is passing as a man or a woman related to racial passing? Is transvestism a sign of homosexuality? What are the politics of drag? Why are cross-dressing rituals so commonly a part of the male power elite? And, why is Peter Pan played by a woman? Rich in anecdote and insight, this volume offers a provocative argument about our ongoing obsession with dressing up - and the power of clothes. 443 pages. The binding is black cloth with slight spots where tape was holding on the jacket. The ffep has a barcode and stamp on it, with part of a card envelope. There is a library stamp on the title page and the top page edges. There are three groupings of pictures, one in color. The jacket should be fine when re-covered. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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New York, New York, U.S.A.: New York Univ Pr, 1998. No Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. For most of the 20th century, social thinkers devoted their attention mainly to the issues of economic class. They generally dismissed the more primordial bonds of racial, ethnic, and national anachronisms that either communism or the liberal frameworks of democracy would dissolve. Today, communism is nearly dead and liberalism is on the wane. At the same time, older ethno-racial tribalisms, along with some newly invented ones, have shattered our illusions of a rationally manageable world. They find expression in the chauvanistic nationalisms, multicultarist ideologies, vicious civil wars, "ethnic cleansing" of whole regions, intensified racial and ethnic strife, a resurgence of prejudice, scapegoating, hate groups, and nativism as well as new group-based challenges to the individualistic focus of Western liberalism. Bringing together prominent historians, socialists, and political scientists, New Tribalisms examines early conceptions of race and ethnic pluralism in the United States. The volume also confronts some of the causes, implications, and possible outcomes of resurgent tribalisms in the country and around the world. 373 pages including notes on the contributors and an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. First Reprint Edition. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. The 19th century transition to a small family size in the Western world was unprecedented, and the reasons people began having fewer children are still not clear. Using contemporary novels, letters, biographies and poetry, this book brings forward the voices of the past to give their own comments and views on a wide range of issues which may have influenced that decision. Individuals in fact and fiction discuss families, love and marriage, as well as childbearing, child survival and what children meant to them - and their reactions to unwanted pregnancies. Their experiences reflect and amplify the demographic evidence of the period, and add life to the statistics. In the same way, their perspective on education, religion and the ideas and controversies of the period, as well as social mobility and social change, provide personal notes to the historical background against which their voices are heard. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)