Controlling sex in captivity : POWs and sexual desire in the United States during the Second World War / Matthias Reiss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reiss, Matthias, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prisoners of war--Sexual behavior--United States--History--20th century.

Prisoners of war.

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, American.

World War, 1939-1945.

Germans--Sexual behavior--United States--History--20th century.

Germans.

Italians--Sexual behavior--United States--History--20th century.

Italians.

Fraternization--History--20th century.

Fraternization.

Women and war--United States--History--20th century.

Women and war.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsburg Academic, 2018.

Summary:

Controlling Sex in Captivity is the first book to examine the nature, extent and impact of the sexual activities of Axis prisoners of war in the United States during the Second World War. Historians have so far interpreted the interactions between captors and captives in America as the beginning of the post-war friendship between the United States, Germany and Italy. Matthias Reiss argues that this paradigm is too simplistic. Widespread fraternisation also led to sexual relationships which created significant negative publicity, and some Axis POWs got caught up in the U.S. Army's new campaign against homosexuals. By focusing on the fight against fraternisation and same-sex activities, this study treads new ground. It stresses that contact between captors and captives was often loaded with conflict and influenced by perceptions of gender and race. It highlights the transnational impact of fraternisation and argues that the prisoners' sojourn in the United States also influenced American society by fuelling a growing concern about social disintegration and sexual deviancy, which eventually triggered a conservative backlash after the war.

Contents:

Historiography

Sources

Editorial comments

Encounters with the enemy

Attraction and pity

Hostile reactions

Controlling heterosexual desire

American women during the war

Initiating contact

The reasons for losing the fight against fraternization

African Americans

The failure of the non-fraternisation policy

Controlling same-sex desire

Policies on same-sex activities in the Axis and American armed forces

Same-sex activities in POW camps in the United States

American reactions to same-sex activities in POW camps.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9781350060647

135006064X

9781350060623

1350060623

OCLC:

1020292577