Pinks, Pansies, and Punks charts the construction of masculinity within American literary culture from the 1930s to the 1970s. Penner documents the emergence of "macho criticism," and explores how debates about "hard" and "soft" masculinity influenced the class struggles of the 1930s, anti-communism in the 1940s and 1950s, and the clash between the Old Left and the New Left in the 1960s. By extending literary culture to include not just novels, plays, and poetry, but diaries, journals, manifestos, screenplays, and essays on psychology and sociology, Penner unveils the multiplicity of...

Today's relentless, consumer culture--dominated by popular media's emphasis on bigger, better, and more, and catering to teenagers' every want and desire--is leaving our youth adrift in a sea of conflicting messages. Messages that youth workers and faith communities need to decode and redirect from consumption as the primary purpose of youth. Consuming Youth explores the shifts needed to move from the fragmented, isolated and consumer driven story for youth and towards a more compelling story of meaning, purpose and a life lived differently than the one served up by consumer culture. If...