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aThoughtful, persuasive, solidly constructed, and likely to
endure the test of time.a--"Choice"
aHalf the 14 essays in this interdisciplinary study of
seventeenth- through nineteenth-century America are
reprints--though it's useful to have work that appeared in academic
journals collected in one place. Among original work, Ramon A.
Gutierrez's revisionist perspective on Native American "berdache"
will raise the most eyebrows: rather than exalt their same-sex
spirituality, fashionable among gay liberationists and radical
faeries alike, the author's theory is that they led lives of sexual
ahumiliation and endless work, not of celebration and veneration.a
Among the reprints, Caleb Crain's account of a romantic triangle
among three Philadelphia men that began in 1786, culled from their
diaries, is the sweetest. Several essays draw on court records
dating back as far as three hundred years to unearth queer lives,
while others glean an intriguing and instructive glimpse of the
past through a reading of Colonial-era fiction and
journalism.a
--"Q Syndicate"
aIlluminate[s] the complexity, breadth, and social impact of
sexuality in history.a--"The Gay & Lesbian Review"
aAn excellent introduction to the dynamic new work on sexuality
in colonial and early national America, which not only expands our
understanding of early America but forces us to rethink paradigms
and periodizations that have long governed histories of sexuality
in the U.S. A valuable contribution.a
--George Chauncey, author of "Why Marriage?"
aThis splendid collection illustrates the maturation of lesbian
and gay history. The early American era emerges as arich period for
understanding same-sex desire in both law and culture. It also
proves critical for re-evaluating the dominant interpretations of
the emergence of modern homosexual identities.a
--Estelle B. Freedman, author of "Feminism, Sexuality, and
Politics"
aThis book fills a huge gap in research on same-sex sexuality,
and usefully complicates our historical understanding of acts and
identities. Long before Stonewall there were sexual identities! But
their character will surprise you.a
--Jonathan Ned Katz, author of "Love Stories"
aRepresents an important contribution to American historical and
sexuality studies.a--"The Gay & Lesbian Review/Worldwide"
"A major, ground-breaking study of early America. Readers will
come away with a fresh sense of the centrality of sexuality to any
understanding of the formation of the new Republic."
--Martha Vicinus, author of "Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved
Women, 1778-1928"
"This splendid collection, interdisciplinary but deeply
historical, illustrates the maturation of lesbian and gay history
as it has expanded its chronological and regional scope and its
methodological depths.."
--Estelle B. Freedman, author of "Feminism, Sexuality, and
Politics"
Although the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City symbolically
mark the start of the gay rights movement, individuals came
together long before the modern era to express their same-sex
romantic and sexual attraction toward one another, and in a myriad
of ways. Some reflected on their desires in quiet solitude, while
others endured verbal, physical, and legal harassment for publicly
expressing homosexual interest through words or actions.
Long Before Stonewall seeks touncover the many iterations of
same-sex desire in colonial America and the early Republic, as well
as to expand the scope of how we define and recognize homosocial
behavior. Thomas A. Foster has assembled a path-breaking,
interdisciplinary collection of original and classic essays that
explore topics ranging from homoerotic imagery of black men to
prison reform to the development of sexual orientations. This
collection spans a regional and temporal breadth that stretches
from the colonial Southwest to Quaker communities in New England.
It also includes a challenge to commonly accepted understandings of
the Native American berdache. Throughout, connections of race,
class, status, and gender are emphasized, exposing the deep
foundations on which modern sexual political movements and
identities are built.
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