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Keeping Family Secrets - Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s (Hardcover)
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Keeping Family Secrets - Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s (Hardcover)
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From teen pregnancy and gay sexuality to Communism and disability,
the startling secrets that families kept during the Cold War era
All families have secrets but the facts requiring secrecy change
with time. Nowadays A lesbian partnership, a “bastard” son, an
aunt who is a prostitute, or a criminal grandfather might be of
little or no consequence but could have unraveled a family at an
earlier moment in history. Margaret K. Nelson is interested in how
families keep secrets from each other and from outsiders when to do
otherwise would risk eliciting not only embarrassment or
discomfort, but profound shame and, in some cases, danger. Drawing
on over 150 memoirs describing childhoods in the period between the
aftermath of World War II and the 1960s, Nelson highlights the
importance of history in creating family secrets and demonstrates
the use of personal stories to understand how people make sense of
themselves and their social worlds. Keeping Family Secrets uncovers
hidden stories of same-sex attraction among boys, unwed pregnancies
among teenage girls, the institutionalization of children with
mental and physical disabilities, participation in left-wing
political activities, adoption, and Jewish ancestry. The members of
ordinary families kept these issues secret to hide the disconnect
between the reality of their own family and the prevailing ideals
of what a family should be. Personal accounts reveal the costs
associated with keeping family secrets, as family members lie, hurl
epithets, inflict abuse, and even deny family membership to protect
themselves from the shame and danger of public knowledge. Keeping
Family Secrets sheds light not only on decades-old secrets but
pushes us to confront what secrets our families keep today.
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