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Full Description
John D'Emilio is one of the leading historians of his generation and a pioneering figure in the field of LGBTQ history. At times his life has been seemingly at odds with his upbringing. How does a boy from an Italian immigrant family in which everyone unfailingly went to confession and Sunday Mass become a lapsed Catholic? How does a family who worshipped Senator Joseph McCarthy and supported Richard Nixon produce an antiwar activist and pacifist? How does a family in which the word divorce was never spoken raise a son who comes to explore the hidden gay sexual underworld of New York City?
Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood is D'Emilio's coming-of-age story in which he takes readers from his working-class Bronx neighborhood to an elite Jesuit high school in Manhattan to Columbia University and the political and social upheavals of the late 1960s. He shares his personal experiences of growing up in a conservative, tight-knit, multigenerational family, how he went from considering entering the priesthood to losing his faith and coming to terms with his same-sex desires. Throughout, D'Emilio outlines his complicated relationship with his family while showing how his passion for activism influenced his decision to use research, writing, and teaching to build a strong LGBTQ movement.
This is not just John D'Emilio's personal story; it opens a window into how the conformist baby boom decade of the 1950s transformed into the tumultuous years of radical social movements and widespread protest during the 1960s. It is the story of what happens when different cultures and values collide and the tensions and possibilities for personal discovery and growth that emerge. Intimate and honest, D'Emilio's story will resonate with anyone who has had to chart their own path in a world they did not expect to find.
Contents
Preface ix
Part I. An Italian Boy from the Bronx
1. An Italian Family 3
2. Big Grandma's House 11
3. School: Becoming a Big Boy 17
4. Baby Jim 25
5. Change, and More Change 32
6. A Family of Friends 40
7. God Help Me! 49
8. A Beginning and an End 57
Part II. A Jesuit Education
9. A Whole New World 65
10. Striving to Win 76
11. My Sexual Desires 84
12. Another Ending 94
13. Working in the City 105
Part III. Everything Changes
14. God Is Dead 119
15. War and Peace 128
16. This Is Me 140
17. I Come Out, Sort Of 148
18. Her Name Is Margaret Mead 160
19. And Then I Studied 169
20. Now What Do I Do? 182
21. A Door Opens 194
Postscript 205
Acknowledgments 207
