
The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac
The Politics of Sexual Privacy in Northern California
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jack de Golia
-
By:
-
Clayton Howard
About this listen
In The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac, Clayton Howard chronicles the rise of sexual privacy as a fulcrum of American cultural politics. Beginning in the 1940s, public officials pursued an agenda that both promoted heterosexuality and made sexual privacy one of the state's key promises to its citizens. The 1944 G.I. Bill, for example, excluded gay veterans and enfranchised married ones in its dispersal of housing benefits. At the same time, officials required secluded bedrooms in new suburban homes and created educational campaigns designed to teach children respect for parents' privacy. In the following decades, measures such as these helped to concentrate middle-class families in the suburbs and gay men and lesbians in cities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the gay rights movement invoked privacy to attack repressive antigay laws, while social conservatives criticized tolerance for LGBTQ+ people as an assault on their own privacy. Many self-identified moderates, however, used identical rhetoric to distance themselves from both the discriminatory language of the religious right and the perceived excesses of the gay freedom struggle. Howard places these moderates at the center of postwar American politics and shows how the region's burgeoning suburbs reacted to increasing gay activism in San Francisco. He offers specific examples of the ways in which government policies shaped many Americans' attitudes about sexuality and privacy, and the ways in which citizens mobilized to reshape them.
The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2019 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2023 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Truth Overruled
- :The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom
- By: Ryan T. Anderson
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Supreme Court has issued a decision, but that doesn't end the debate. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, Americans face momentous debates about the nature of marriage and religious liberty. Because the Court has redefined marriage in all 50 states, we have to energetically protect our freedom to live according to conscience and faith as we work to rebuild a strong marriage culture.
-
-
Clarification
- By Cambridge on 04-01-19
By: Ryan T. Anderson
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
White Space, Black Hood
- Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality
- By: Sheryll Cashin
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The iconic Black hood, like slavery and Jim Crow, is a peculiar American institution animated by the ideology of white supremacy. Politicians and people of all colors propagated “ghetto” myths to justify racist policies that concentrated poverty in the hood and created high-opportunity white spaces. In White Space, Black Hood, Sheryll Cashin traces the history of anti-Black residential caste - boundary maintenance, opportunity hoarding, and stereotype-driven surveillance - and unpacks its current legacy....
-
-
Powerful exposition about geography and race
- By J. Craig on 10-10-21
By: Sheryll Cashin
-
Coming Apart
- The State of White America, 1960–2010
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.
-
-
Brilliant & Flawed
- By Douglas C. Bates on 05-15-12
By: Charles Murray
-
Against White Feminism
- Notes on Disruption
- By: Rafia Zakaria
- Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Upper-middle-class White women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority.
-
-
What a rollercoaster. A must read
- By L on 05-28-22
By: Rafia Zakaria
-
Guilty by Reason of Insanity
- Why the Democrats Must Not Win
- By: David Limbaugh
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Number-one national best-selling author David Limbaugh warns Americans about the 2020 elections - and why the Democratic Party must not win.
-
-
Scary with its truthfulness
- By Kim Calhoun on 11-17-19
By: David Limbaugh
-
Truth Overruled
- :The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom
- By: Ryan T. Anderson
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Supreme Court has issued a decision, but that doesn't end the debate. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, Americans face momentous debates about the nature of marriage and religious liberty. Because the Court has redefined marriage in all 50 states, we have to energetically protect our freedom to live according to conscience and faith as we work to rebuild a strong marriage culture.
-
-
Clarification
- By Cambridge on 04-01-19
By: Ryan T. Anderson
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
White Space, Black Hood
- Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality
- By: Sheryll Cashin
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The iconic Black hood, like slavery and Jim Crow, is a peculiar American institution animated by the ideology of white supremacy. Politicians and people of all colors propagated “ghetto” myths to justify racist policies that concentrated poverty in the hood and created high-opportunity white spaces. In White Space, Black Hood, Sheryll Cashin traces the history of anti-Black residential caste - boundary maintenance, opportunity hoarding, and stereotype-driven surveillance - and unpacks its current legacy....
-
-
Powerful exposition about geography and race
- By J. Craig on 10-10-21
By: Sheryll Cashin
-
Coming Apart
- The State of White America, 1960–2010
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.
-
-
Brilliant & Flawed
- By Douglas C. Bates on 05-15-12
By: Charles Murray
-
Against White Feminism
- Notes on Disruption
- By: Rafia Zakaria
- Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Upper-middle-class White women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority.
-
-
What a rollercoaster. A must read
- By L on 05-28-22
By: Rafia Zakaria
-
Guilty by Reason of Insanity
- Why the Democrats Must Not Win
- By: David Limbaugh
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Number-one national best-selling author David Limbaugh warns Americans about the 2020 elections - and why the Democratic Party must not win.
-
-
Scary with its truthfulness
- By Kim Calhoun on 11-17-19
By: David Limbaugh
-
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated
- The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures - whether they be PTA, church, or political parties - have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
-
-
Long Long book
- By William S. Gross on 11-13-17
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
Slouching Towards Gomorrah
- Modern Liberalism and American Decline
- By: Robert H. Bork
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Slouching Towards Gomorrah, one of our nation's most distinguished conservative scholars offers a prophetic view of a culture in decline, a nation in such serious moral trouble that its very foundation is crumbling. The root of our decline, Bork argues, is the rise of modern liberalism, which stresses the dual forces of radical egalitarianism and radical individualism.
-
-
Unbelievably perceptive!!!
- By Elena on 03-05-15
By: Robert H. Bork
-
Transgender History, Second Edition
- The Roots of Today's Revolution
- By: Susan Stryker
- Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
-
-
something for everyone to learn
- By Nick G on 03-12-19
By: Susan Stryker
-
The Purpose of Power
- How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
- By: Alicia Garza
- Narrated by: Alicia Garza
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote: Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements - people do.
-
-
Black Lives Matter is not about rioting: read this
- By Miracle on 10-21-20
By: Alicia Garza
-
Necessary Noise
- How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This Is Good News for America
- By: Star Parker, Richard Manning
- Narrated by: Alecia Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Star Parker was among the many reeling and confused as Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States. But, she argues, a silver lining to this outcome is the debate that has since ruled our media and private conversations. The ongoing noise of debate can seem overwhelming, but our country needs the authentic and candid dialogue of its people. And Trump's presidency provides us with an opportunity like never before to engage and work to preserve the values upon which America was built. Necessary Noise honestly examines the crossroads where we find ourselves.
-
-
One of the most amazing books of our time.
- By Eric on 12-06-19
By: Star Parker, and others
-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- By: Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett - contributor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
-
-
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
Ethnic America
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: James Bundy
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Sowell provides us with a useful and concise record tracing the history of nine ethnic groups: Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans.
-
-
Understanding the ethnic tapestry of America
- By Amazon Customer on 12-23-19
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Know Your Price
- Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities
- By: Andre M. Perry
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The deliberate devaluation of Blacks and their communities has had very real, far-reaching, and negative economic and social effects. An enduring white supremacist myth claims brutal conditions in Black communities are mainly the result of Black people's collective choices and moral failings. But there is nothing wrong with Black people that ending racism can't solve. Noted educator, journalist, and scholar Andre Perry takes listeners on a tour of six Black-majority cities whose assets and strengths are undervalued.
-
-
More about Black lives than property
- By J. Craig on 04-13-22
By: Andre M. Perry
-
Jane Crow
- The Life of Pauli Murray
- By: Rosalind Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mixed-race orphan, Murray grew up in segregated North Carolina before escaping to New York, where she attended Hunter College and became a labor activist in the 1930s. When she applied to graduate school at the University of North Carolina, where her white great-great-grandfather had been a trustee, she was rejected because of her race. She went on to graduate first in her class at Howard Law School, only to be rejected for graduate study again at Harvard University this time on account of her sex. Undaunted, Murray forged a singular career in the law.
-
-
What a legacy!!!
- By Paul on 03-08-21
-
The Invincible Family
- Why the Global Campaign to Crush Motherhood and Fatherhood Can't Win
- By: Kimberly Ells
- Narrated by: Becky White
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Socialists and feminists have long targeted the family as an enemy, even the enemy. For socialists, the family is an obstacle to the full power of the progressive state. For feminists, the family denies female independence and equality. Today, however, the battle has grown even fiercer, as socialists and feminists have found a global ally in the United Nations, which is using its extraordinary power to undercut the authority and the sanctity of the family around the world - even in the United States.
-
-
Must read for all mothers.
- By Andrea G on 07-07-23
By: Kimberly Ells
-
The Condemnation of Blackness
- Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
- By: Khalil Gibran Muhammad
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black Southern criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American society. Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.
-
-
For a very select audience
- By Andrew on 12-28-17
-
The Modern Scholar
- Feminism and the Future of Women
- By: Prof. Estelle Freedman
- Narrated by: Estelle Freedman
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the time of the abolitionists, no movement has so politicized social life in the United States as feminism. Responsible for wide-ranging legislation, such as women's right to vote and the right to an abortion, feminists have fought their way to the center of the country's political dialogue and made themselves a major presence there. But the road to such influence has not been easy.
-
-
Really enjoyed this audiobook!
- By shannon on 01-20-17