August 1, 2015
At the intersection of women's history, the history of sexuality and gender, and the emerging field of girls and girlhood studies, Littauer's (history, Northern Illinois Univ.) first book probes the sexual agency of young women of the 1940s and 1950s. The author marshals an impressive range of sources, including government surveys, letters written to sexologist Alfred Kinsey, and oral histories, to revise our understanding of wartime and postwar sexual daring. From "victory girls" to "B-girls" and women who unabashedly pursued same-sex desires before the era of gay liberation, this analysis challenges our collective memory of the mid-20th century as one of unremitting conformity and sexual repression. While remaining attentive to the marginalizing effects of race and class as well as gender and sexual identity, Littauer shows how young women of the period asserted their sexual agency even as girls' and women's sexual autonomy was undeniably constrained by social censure and legal force. VERDICT A well-crafted, deeply researched contribution to the field, this work will be eagerly read and digested by scholars of this understudied period in the history of gender and sexuality in America.--Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. Lib., Boston
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