In this anthology, Chafe and Sitkoff have collected a number of articles that are critical in understanding the major issues in American history during the past 50 years. Despite the broad thematic scope of essays--ranging from post-war foreign policy to the creation of an "urban underclass" during the Reagan administration--the organization and careful editing of the book provide the reader with a clear understanding of America's recent sociopolitical transitions. The lucid and well-written individual essays, submitted by leading historians and well-known political figures, work particularly well alongside the documents and commentaries they are paired with.

A change of courtship occurred from the 1920s and 1940s was the shift from the girl's household to the vechile and away from the watchful eyes of the community. It was a change from sitting at the parlors at the girl's family. A boy would have to be invited to a girl's house causing the woman to have the authority and control, but those things changed. A boy could not go to a girl's house without her permission, but at times changed the guy began to take the authority from the girl. Dating was what was causing the changes of courtship. It moved the girl and the boy outside the home and created a shift from the parlor at the girl's house. Examples would be the replacing of the girl's house with the car.

Bailey's book is great for reading and will take only a day to finish (143 pages). Also, it is a really nice looking book. It covers the roles of consumption and competition in courtship, and the understanding that courtship has changed in American society. I give the book four stars.

I'm a college professor and I use this book in my classes all the time. Students (male and female) love it, and they remember it. Many of them give the book to their parents to read. Bailey is an engaging writer who employs a wide variety of sources to demonstrate the path from calling to dating to going steady, and the changing meanings of those words. An historian, Bailey provides helpful social and cultural contexts. It's useful gender history. But what the book really needs is an update that would take this topic to the present. The Epilogue doesn't explain enough about dating nowadays, and thus the earlier chapters are best.

Ms Bailey writes of 20th century courtship from the 1920's or so onwards. Discussing those elements that changed social conventions and permissible actions (such as the car) she vividly discusses the evolution of courtship, and with it sexuality throughtout the 20th century. A fun read for kicks, and a fabulous resource for historians researching the evolution in dating.

SUMMARY: facts and interpretation of the effects of WW2 in Hawaii

REVIEW: The authors interviewed many people, including my father, Anthony Capanna, as they wrote this account of WW2 in Hawaii. Although I think their account is quite accurate (and was grateful they depicted my father as the good/honest/moral person he is), there are parts of the book that are quite graphic as pertaining to the sleazier side of what went on after Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Factual, yes; worth reading, if you need it as a research tool; a bit jolting and base...yes. I don't recommend it for young people.

This book is the best ever done on the WWII scene in the Islands. The research is exhaustive, and the stories extremely well-told. I am a historian and author in Hawai'i--concentrating on the 19th century but well aware of the 20th--and the authors have done a great job of not only telling the stories but coming to the correct conclusions. The two chapters on Black soldiers and the sex trade are especially good.

The title refers to the idea that Hawai'i, with very different foods, traditions and most of its population Oriental and Polynesian, was the first strange place that most young servicemen ever encountered. On their way to fight Japanese, they are stationed on an island with more than a third of the population of Japanese ancestory.

If you want an insight as to the impact of suddenly tripling the population of an island, primarily with young fighting men, this is the book. It's a GREAT read, and it all happened!

Having attended KU during the sexual revolution I really looked forward to reading this book. It is interesting to read about events you actually got to attend and to read about persons you knew at college. The writer has done a masterful job of research and certainly the book was entertaining, yet it does not capture what was going on. Young people want to have sex, and they will have sex as long as it is reasonably possible. The reason there seemed to be a sexual revolution in Lawrence at the end of the 1960s was because there were now so many more college students there. This fact, more than anything else, was the moving force behind the "revolution." As I remember college, it was a time of poverty, too much work, being away from home the first time, and loneliness and isolation. Perhaps in the fantasy world of the mass media all college students were having sex, but in the real world most of us were just trying to survive. There is sexual behavior going on everywhere, and there will be sexual behavior as long as we are human beings. But in Kansas many boys lose their virginity in whore houses in Junction City Kansas. Others utilize barnyard animals. (Sheep are best.) The fact that this dirty business is kept quiet does not mean that it does not occur. The presense of many homosexuals at KU could indicate the occurrance of a sexual revolution. It could also just as well indicate that the state itself is so repressive they flock to Lawrence for a chance to be free. I don't think the author understood this and I do not think that the book is all that intellectually significant. The kids who came up to Lawrence in 1968 and began having sex there would have been having sex had they come up in 1938. Similarly those who couldn't get laid in the 1960s would have done without at any time. Additionally the gay fringe and the counterculture were simply not representative of the student body and to compare or even discuss the two groups is to compare oranges with frogs.

This is a very accessible, well-written book which at the same time provides a complex analysis of American's changing attitudes and assumptions regarding sexual practices. While focusing on Lawrence, Kansas, (very useful for understanding how individuals and institutions reacted within a specific context), it says much about the country as a whole. It is refreshingly forthright without being unnecessarily salacious. And it manages to inform without taking all the fun out of the topic-quite a balancing act!

The sexual revolution didn't just happen in New York and San Francisco, and this book tell the story of how the sexual revolution came to the liberal college town of Lawrence, KS.

This book has a lot of fascinating stories, such as the history of birth control in Lawrence, the story of the town's attempt to "protect" itself from 10,000 sex-crazed young men working the nearby arms factory during WWII, and the history of gay liberation in the area.

Anyone interested in sexual/cultural politics and social issue will really enjoy this one.