Female Adolescent Sexuality in the United States, 1850–1965

In this engaging study, Ann Kordas deftly traces the ways in which meanings and experiences of female adolescent sexuality took shape in relation to larger currents of social, economic, and cultural change from the middle of the nineteenth century to the early 1960s. Kordas establishes that there was no shortage of parental anxiety, expert advice, and cultural fascination regarding girls’ sexual behavior during this 100-year period. She also listens intently to the rich and varied voices of girls themselves, offering fresh insight into what girls from diverse backgrounds thought, felt, desired, and experienced when navigating a sexual and romantic terrain marked by ever-shifting measures of pleasure and danger, possibility and constraint. -- Crista DeLuzio, Southern Methodist University
In this comprehensive synthesis of adolescent girls’ sexuality in the United States, Ann Kordas is especially adept at incorporating experiences of girls of color into an overarching narrative. Drawing on examples from popular culture as well as girls’ own actions and writings, this is a must read for historians of girlhood and sexuality. -- Nicholas L. Syrett, author of American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States