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A history of homosexuality around the world since 1869, drawing on the experience of unknown people as well as celebrities such as Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, James Baldwin and Martina Navratilova. Recent political developments are covered, including the issue of homosexuality in the US Army.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book - moving, engaging, accessible, and as comprehensive as any book on a 'community' bound only by their sexuality can be - covering Oscar Wilde and Harvey Milk, gays in the military, Japanese samurai warriors, lesbian-feminist activists, the AIDS epidemic. But the idea of a gay community is something Miller comes back to repeatedly in this book - how often the gay and lesbian community has been fractured and divided by the fact that the only common link is sexuality, that even the very concept of a group linked only by sexuality would have been considered almost inconceivable as recently as fifty years ago.
Activists like to talk of 'gay history', but Miller makes it clear that there is no such thing, that the idea of a 'gay identity' is a recent construct, and that whilst homosexuality has existed for as long as there have been people, the notion of defining one's identity by it is a very recent development.
And it can only be a positive one, in my view. This is an incredibly moving book, filled with testimony and stories from real people who have fought and struggled and argued for tolerance and equality their entire lives, as well as excerpts from literature, news publications, essays and other contemporary sources. The edition of the book I read finished in the early 90s with the election of Bill Clinton, but I believe there was an updated edition published a few years ago that brings things up to date.
Activists like to talk of 'gay history', but Miller makes it clear that there is no such thing, that the idea of a 'gay identity' is a recent construct, and that whilst homosexuality has existed for as long as there have been people, the notion of defining one's identity by it is a very recent development.
And it can only be a positive one, in my view. This is an incredibly moving book, filled with testimony and stories from real people who have fought and struggled and argued for tolerance and equality their entire lives, as well as excerpts from literature, news publications, essays and other contemporary sources. The edition of the book I read finished in the early 90s with the election of Bill Clinton, but I believe there was an updated edition published a few years ago that brings things up to date.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A GREAT SURVEY OF GAY HISTORY
27 Mar 1998
Format:Paperback
If you are interested in history, I highly suggest this book. Marginalized for eons, gay people are now an integral part of history. Relegated to the backburner, or whispered about in history sources, gay people have come forward with a great history. Within this collection, there are heartaches and triumphs, but always searching for the ideal of equality one day. Another good thing about this book is that it includes non-Western gay and lesbian history as well, yet another subject ignored by the "mainstream" history. An incredibly transfixing and fascinating book, I couldn't put it down, and read into the late hours of the evening.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating History
24 July 1998
Format:Paperback
Neil Miller's done a great job of pulling together aspects of (western) gay history. I've read some of the sources for his lesbian chapters and he uses them intelligently to summarise main points. I assume he's does the same with the male stuff and material from other countries which was previously unfamiliar to me. His style is readable, succinct and balanced about how we look at the past from our current viewpoints.
One feature of the book which is particularly pleasing is his use of extracts from writings he's referred to in his central text. This adds a good variety to the voice of the work AND the extracts are long enough (two or more pages in length) to inspire further study.
I also like A) the pictures of famous historical figures, there's something particularly moving about them, (I never knew Willa Cather was so gorgeous!)
and B) the balance of genders and countries covered is better than average.
My advice - read it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Would have been great- if it were accurate.
1 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback
I've been reading this book (and using it as a main reference point for a thesis paper) when I noticed a few date and fact discrepancies. This book states things that are completely different from dozens of other sources I have, and maybe some of them are right, but I know, without a doubt that a few of them were wrong. And I just noticed one isolated incident, but if one error is there, I don't feel I can trust the validity of the rest of the book.
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