{"product_id":"memories-of-a-gay-catholic-boyhood-9781478015925","title":"Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn 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 \u003ci\u003edivorce \u003c\/i\u003ewas never spoken raise a son who comes to explore the hidden gay sexual underworld of New York City?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMemories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Unusual among today’s memoirs, this one is upbeat and generous spirited about its author’s early life and challenges. . . . The author’s compassionate spirit suffuses the text to such a degree that one hopes for a future continuation into his years as a professional historian. A warm, humane coming-of-age memoir. . . .\" * Kirkus Reviews *\u003cbr\u003e“In this fascinating self-portrait and insightful portrait of his times, a prominent queer historian recalls growing up in the 1950s and ’60s—a smart, pious, conservative, Catholic boy from a working-class Italian family in the Bronx transforms himself into a radical left, openly gay Columbia University student.” -- Jonathan Ned Katz, author of * The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams *\u003cbr\u003e\"D’Emilio’s youthful reminiscences make for a classic work of literature that deserves a wide readership. One hopes this memoir is only the first in a succession.\" (Starred Review) -- David Azzolina * Library Journal *\u003cbr\u003e\"[D'Emilio's] memoir is a love letter to Manhattan. but also to the Bronx of his childhood, to the schools that educated and occasionally hindered him, to the family members who nourished him—even when they no longer understood him—so he would someday find his life's work. . . . Based on the many pleasures offered by this book, I hope he decides to write the sequel.\" -- Daniel A. Burr * Gay and Lesbian Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"D’Emilio, who has been an eminent historian of the American gay man’s experience and struggle during his lifetime, has turned his searching eye inward and now gives us a different kind of history—one that’s pegged to his own life, loves and learnings. Every page is fork-tender with emotion, and to be honest, in my mind’s eye, I imagined him going back to a huge file of every sweet or difficult or thoughtful observation he’d ever excised from one of his academic books and sewing them together with hindsight for this volume.\" -- S. Bear Bergman * Xtra! *\u003cbr\u003e\"As D’Emilio applies his skills as an acclaimed social and cultural historian to his own youth, \u003ci\u003eMemories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood\u003c\/i\u003e offers us a caring and thoughtful window into a time of enormous change in American society and the Catholic Church. His account is warm and gracious; he is quick to acknowledge his own limitations while acknowledging the crucial role of his friends and family in shaping and loving the gay Catholic man he became.\" -- Brian Linnane * America *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface  ix\u003cbr\u003e Part I. An Italian Boy from the Bronx\u003cbr\u003e 1. An Italian Family  3\u003cbr\u003e 2. Big Grandma's House  11\u003cbr\u003e 3. School: Becoming a Big Boy  17\u003cbr\u003e 4. Baby Jim  25\u003cbr\u003e 5. Change, and More Change  32\u003cbr\u003e 6. A Family of Friends  40\u003cbr\u003e 7. God Help Me!  49\u003cbr\u003e 8. A Beginning and an End  57\u003cbr\u003e Part II. A Jesuit Education\u003cbr\u003e 9. A Whole New World  65\u003cbr\u003e 10. Striving to Win  76\u003cbr\u003e 11. My Sexual Desires  84\u003cbr\u003e 12. Another Ending  94\u003cbr\u003e 13. Working in the City  105\u003cbr\u003e Part III. Everything Changes\u003cbr\u003e 14. God Is Dead  119\u003cbr\u003e 15. War and Peace  128\u003cbr\u003e 16. This Is Me  140\u003cbr\u003e 17. I Come Out, Sort Of  148\u003cbr\u003e 18. Her Name Is Margaret Mead  160\u003cbr\u003e 19. And Then I Studied  169\u003cbr\u003e 20. Now What Do I Do?  182\u003cbr\u003e 21. A Door Opens  194\u003cbr\u003e Postscript  205\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments  207","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409000472919,"sku":"9781478015925","price":20.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781478015925.jpg?v=1730505039","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/memories-of-a-gay-catholic-boyhood-9781478015925","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}