Keeping Family Secrets: Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s

During the Cold War era, families kept many startling secrets, such as teen pregnancy, gay sexuality, Communism, and disability. Margaret K. Nelson's book explores how families kept these secrets from each other and outsiders, often risking embarrassment, discomfort, and danger. Drawing on over 150 memoirs, it highlights the importance of history in creating family secrets and the use of personal stories to understand how people make sense of themselves and their social worlds. The book reveals hidden stories of same-sex attraction, unwed pregnancies, institutionalization, political activities, adoption, and Jewish ancestry, and the costs associated with keeping these secrets, including lying, abuse, and denial of family membership. It pushes us to confront the secrets our families keep today.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 25 October 2022
Publisher: New York University Press

During the Cold War era, families kept a multitude of startling secrets, ranging from teen pregnancy and gay sexuality to Communism and disability. These secrets were not only hidden from each other but also from outsiders, as revealing them could bring about embarrassment, discomfort, profound shame, and even danger.

Margaret K. Nelson, in her book "Keeping Family Secrets," explores the intricate dynamics of families and the strategies they employ to keep secrets from one another and the outside world. Drawing on over 150 memoirs that describe childhoods between the aftermath of World War II and the 1960s, Nelson highlights the role of history in shaping family secrets and demonstrates how personal stories can provide insight into how individuals make sense of themselves and their social worlds.

"Keeping Family Secrets" uncovers a range of hidden stories, including same-sex attraction among boys, unwed pregnancies among teenage girls, the institutionalization of children with mental and physical disabilities, participation in left-wing political activities, adoption, and Jewish ancestry. These issues were kept secret by ordinary families to conceal the discrepancy between their own family reality and the prevailing ideals of what a family should be. Personal accounts reveal the emotional toll that comes with keeping family secrets, as family members resort to lying, hurling epithets, inflicting abuse, and even denying family membership to protect themselves from the shame and danger of public knowledge.

"Keeping Family Secrets" not only sheds light on secrets that have been hidden for decades but also prompts us to confront the secrets that our families continue to keep today. It serves as a reminder that families are complex entities with their own set of dynamics and that the secrets they hold can have far-reaching consequences for individuals and society as a whole. By exploring these hidden stories, we can gain a deeper understanding of the past and the challenges that families face.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479815623