Books by Kathy Peiss

Focusing on the most notorious fashion of the 1940s, Zoot Suit traces its enigmatic career during World War II and after, as it spread from Harlem across the United States and around the world. In so doing, this book offers a new perspective on youth culture and the politics of style.

Explores the experiences, ideas, and conflicts that have shaped the emergence of modern sexual identities. This work features articles on sexual assault, homosexuality, birth control, venereal disease, sexual repression, pornography, and the AIDS epidemic, which examine the ways that sexuality has become a core element of modern social identity.

What did young, independent women do for fun and how did they pay their way into New York City's turn-of-the-century pleasure places? This title offers a discussion of young working women whose meager wages often fell short of bare subsistence and rarely allowed for entertainment expenses.