Masculinity, Class and Same-Sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895–1957

Abstract

This book provides the first academic study of non-metropolitan men who desired other men in the period from 1895-1957. It places issues of class, masculinity and regionality alongside sexuality in seeking to understand how men experienced their emotional and sexual relationships with each other. This in turn, demonstrates new understandings of working-class culture, gender and the position of work in the identity of working-class men. The book takes a thematic approach to analyse the changes and continuities in how men experienced their sexual and emotional lives over the period and to map broader social and cultural changes. It uses a wide range of sources to analyse both how men saw themselves and how the authorities viewed men who desired other men. Source materials include court records, newspapers, letters, social surveys, photographs and newsreels.