United States history

Tag: United States history

J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI, and the “Sex Deviates” Program

By Christopher Elias June 21, 2016 Author Interviews 0 comments

Interview by Christopher Michael Elias For nearly four decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation used the so-called Sex Deviates Program to investigate and badger gay men and women in the United States. That harassment was justified by the belief that homosexuals posed a security risk in two ways: their behavior […]

Archives of Desire: Analog Sexting

By Josh Adair May 3, 2016 Archives of Desire 1 comment

My grandparents helped pave the way for virtual trysts.

How to Study an American Sex Scandal

By notcheseditor April 19, 2016 Post-1945 United States 0 comments

When does sex become a political weapon?

Presidential Penis Politics: A Micro-History

By Rachel Hope Cleves March 5, 2016 Early America 2 comments

Rachel Hope Cleves Donald J. Trump’s penis, size unknown, has reared its head as a political issue. On Thursday night, during yet another GOP presidential primary debate, the party’s leading candidate debated the size of his penis with rival Marco Rubio before an audience of millions. Mainstream media channels such […]

Inventing the Family Farm: Towards a History of Rural Heterosexuality

By Gabriel Rosenberg February 18, 2016 Post-1945 United States 1 comment

Gabriel N. Rosenberg In the postwar United States, the state’s project of preserving the family farm was yoked to its project of making the modern American family. The family farm enjoys an uncanny amount of deference in modern American political culture in part because it is an unusually potent sexual symbol: […]

“Arresting Dress”: A Student Interview with Clare Sears

By Rachel Hope Cleves January 12, 2016 Author Interviews, LGBTQ 0 comments

Interview by Kalin Bullin, M. Blake Butler, Deborah Deacon, Christina Fabiani, Elise Forest-Hammond, Adam Kostrich, Jake Sherman, and Lee Thiessen Edited by Rachel Hope Cleves This post launches a new series for NOTCHES, which will feature students interviewing authors of recent works in the history of sexuality. The goal of […]

A Christmas Abortion

By Gillian Frank December 15, 2015 Post-1945 United States 1 comment

Gillian Frank On Christmas Eve 1955, Jacqueline Smith died from an illegal abortion at her boyfriend Thomas G. Daniel’s apartment. Jacqueline Smith was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1935. A quiet, driven and talented artist, she graduated from high school in 1953 and moved to New York City where she […]