Pinks, Pansies, and Punks charts the construction of masculinity withinAmerican literary culture from the 1930s to the 1970s. Penner documents theemergence of "macho criticism," and explores how debates about "hard" and "soft"masculinity influenced the class struggles of the 1930s, anti-communism in the 1940sand 1950s, and the clash between the Old Left and the New Left in the 1960s. Byextending literary culture to include not just novels, plays, and poetry, butdiaries, journals, manifestos, screenplays, and essays on psychology and sociology, Penner unveils the multiplicity of gender attitudes that emerge in each of thedecades he addresses.