Leading sexuality scholars explore queer lives and cultures in the first full post-war decade through an array of sources and a range of perspectives. Drawing out the particularities of queer cultures from the Finland and New Zealand to the UK and the USA, this collection rethinks preconceptions of the 1950s and pinpoints some of its legacies.

Introduction: Queer 50s; H.Bauer & M.Cook PART I: ESPISTEMOLOGIES Sexology Backward: Hirschfeld, Kinsey and the Reshaping of Sex Research in the 1950s; H.Bauer 'Someone to Love': Teen Girls' Same-Sex Desire in the 1950s United States; A.H.Littauer Lesbians before 'the Lesbian', 'Sisters' in Faith and Crime: Conceptualisations of Cross-generational Sexual Relationships in Two Women's Same-sex Fornication Court Cases in 1950s Rural Finland; A.Sorainen PART II: REPRESENTATIONS 'Who Is She?': Identities, Intertextuality and Authority in Non-Fiction Lesbian Pulp of the 1950s; K.Mitchell Love 'Off the Rails' or 'Over the Teacups'?: Lesbian Desire and Female Sexualities in the 1950s Popular Press; A.Oram Nouveau Désordre: Diabolical Queerness in 1950s French Cinema; A.Asibong PART III: REASSESSMENTS Moral Panic or Critical Mass?: The Queer Contradictions of 1950s New Zealand; C.Brickell Queer Profits: Homosexual Scandal and the Origins of Legal Reform in Britain; J.Bengry The Long 1950s as Radical-in-Between; J.V.Evans PART IV: LEGACIES Warm Homes in a Cold Climate: Rex Batten and the Queer Domestic; M.Cook Geeks and Gaffs: The Queer Legacy of the 1950s American Freak Show; E.Stephens