Changed Men: Veterans in American Popular Culture after World War II (Cultural Frames, Framing Culture)

Synopsis

Postwar culture and anxiety over the reintegration of veterans into American society Millions of GIs returned from overseas in 1945. A generation of men who had left their families and had learned to kill and to quickly dispatch sexual urges were rapidly reintegrated into civilian life, told to put the war behind them with cheer and confidence. Many veterans struggled, openly or privately, with this transition. Others in society wondered what the war had wrought in them. As Erin Lee Mock shows in this insightful book, the &“explosive&” potential of men became a central concern of postwar American culture. This wariness of veterans settled into a generalized anxiety over men&’s &“inherent&” violence and hypersexuality, which increasingly came to define masculinity. Changed Men engages with studies of film, media, literature, and gender and sexuality to advance a new perspective on the artistic and cultural output of and about the &“Greatest Generation,&” arguing that depictions of men&’s violent and erotic potential emerged differently in different forms and genres but nonetheless permeated American culture in these years. Viewing this homecoming through the lenses of war and trauma, classical Hollywood, pulp fiction, periodical culture, and early television, Mock shows this history in a provocative new light.

Copyright:

2024

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780813950969

Related ISBNs:

9780813950945, 9780813950952

Publisher:

University of Virginia Press

Date of Addition:

06/28/24

Copyrighted By:

the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Literature and Fiction, Social Studies, Language Arts

Grade Levels:

Graduate Student

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.