Sex and Drugs before Rock 'n' Roll

Sex and Drugs before Rock 'n' Roll

Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland's Golden Age

Sex and Drugs Before the Rock ’n’ Roll is a fascinating volume that presents an engaging overview of what it was like to be young and male in the Dutch Golden Age. Here, well-known cohorts of Rembrandt are examined for the ways in which they expressed themselves by defying conservative values and norms. This study reveals how these young men rebelled, breaking from previous generations: letting their hair grow long, wearing colorful clothing, drinking excessively, challenging city guards, being promiscuous, smoking, and singing lewd songs.
            Cogently argued, this study paints a compelling portrait of the youth culture of the Dutch Golden Age, at a time when the rising popularity of print made dissemination of new cultural ideas possible, while rising incomes and liberal attitudes created a generation of men behaving badly.

  • Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll
  • Preface and Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • Prologue
    • New approach to youth
    • Sex and drugs before rock ’n’ roll
    • The phase of life recognized as ‘Youth’
    • Rites of passage
    • Prodigal son
    • Youth culture
    • Holland – heart of the Republic
    • Masculinity
    • Before rock ’n’ roll
  • Chapter 1: The Generation of the 1620s and 1630s
    • Risk-taking behavior
    • Marriage
    • Amsterdam – a seventeenth-century boomtown
  • Chapter 2: Appearance and Clothing in the 1620s and 1630s
    • Long hair
    • Cavaliers
    • Republic sans court culture
    • Silk ribbons and metalic accessories
    • Bright colors
    • Calculated slovenliness
    • Sumptuary rite of passage
    • Extravagant clothing and the Prodigal Son
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 3: Drinking Like a Man
    • Rite of passage
    • Follies of youth
    • Moral instruction
    • Alcohol and young men from the upper and middle classes
    • Honoring Bacchus
    • Male bonding: cross social and economic drinking
    • Alcohol and young men from the lower echelons
  • Chapter 4: Violence
    • Violence – a rite of passage
    • Collective socialization process
    • Unequal partners
    • Urban socialization process
    • Violence and the lower ranks
    • Rebelling against authority
    • Violence and the upper and middle classes
    • Loco parentis
    • Armed young men
    • Student violence – a rite of passage
    • Shattering glass
    • Nations
    • Channelled violence
  • Chapter 5: Sexuality and Courting
    • Sex education
    • Sexual maturity
    • Masturbation
    • Sodomy
    • Courting activities
    • Courting events
    • Courting space
    • Premarital chastity
    • Sexual deviance abroad
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 6: Drugs?
    • Tobacco and the young
    • Smoking – a burning debate
    • Medical discourse
    • Belladonna
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter 7: Recreation before Rock 'n' Roll
    • Youth literature
    • War
    • Adventure
    • Love emblem books
    • Song culture in the Republic
    • Religious songbooks
    • Secular songbooks
    • Women and songbooks
    • Song culture produced by and for the young
    • Arcadian songbooks
    • Boat trips
    • Country rides
    • Merrymaking at the beach
    • Boundaries for the young
    • Conclusion
  • Epilogue
    • Masculine role models and a national identity?
    • The dark passenger of male role models
  • Notes
    • Prologue
    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 2
    • Chapter 3
    • Chapter 4
    • Chapter 5
    • Chapter 6
    • Chapter 7
    • Epilogue
  • Illustration Credits
  • Bibliography
    • Sources
      • Archives
      • Literature
      • Bibliography
  • Index

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