The Cold War was a brief moment in time, but the history of gender and sexuality is as long as the human story itself. Singular in its global range, this anthology explores the linkage, as opposed to a mere intersection, between these two histories. The volume’s thirteen diverse articles and Marko Dumancik’s useful introduction examine some of the ways in which the Cold War affected sexuality and gender in several parts of the world and, conversely, how the Cold War was itself shaped by certain regionally distinctive femininities, masculinities, and sexualities.
Especially since May’s innovative Homeward Bound in 1988, historians of the United States have been examining the Cold War’s linkage to gender and sexuality.1 Muehlenbeck, however, has gathered works that also bring the discussion to Iceland, Egypt, Germany, Vietnam, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, India, Mexico, Ghana, and Czechoslovakia. Impressively transnational in focus, this work nonetheless is not at...