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jdrummond's review against another edition
4.0
This book serves a good primer on looking at the history of America within the context of the queer community. As someone who has little familiarity with this community and it’s role in society, many parts of this book were enlightening, especially in the ways that sexuality has influenced our society and been influenced by society, as well.
It is definitely a gloss over some major points, with obvious holes, but it’s a start. And it’s full of references to further readings, if you feel like you’d like learn more.
I look forward to reading more of this series to help broaden my context of what constitutes American History.
It is definitely a gloss over some major points, with obvious holes, but it’s a start. And it’s full of references to further readings, if you feel like you’d like learn more.
I look forward to reading more of this series to help broaden my context of what constitutes American History.
bigbookgeek's review against another edition
3.0
This is far from a concise history of Queer United States history. While I enjoyed the book, the author did tend to jump around chronologically, which makes it a bit hard to stay focused on the time periods he was trying to portray. Other than that, the book is interesting and reads easily, doesn't get too bogged down in the mundane. If you are looking for a quick run through of some major points (as well as some not too well known ones) in US Queer history, this is the book for you. If you are looking for some in-depth analysis of our history, look elsewhere!
rebeccacider's review against another edition
3.0
This was a solid, well-researched book, and basically readable even though it skewed academic in its language. I didn't get a lot out of it, but it's a good introductory text.
One thing to note is that the book is very much a history not of the United States in totality, but of the contemporary LGBTQ community. It's a "how did we get here" kind of read. This is all well and good, but I thought there could have been better coverage of racial minorities (especially non-Black people of color), indigenous communities, the Latin American world, and rural/working-class/non-visible folks whose experiences didn't survive to become the "gay community" as we now imagine it.
As an example of what I was hoping to see: I remember my American women's history professor including lessons on Native American and West African women. Even though these histories were subsumed by European imperialism, we still studied them. In Bronski's defense, I'd hazard a guess that we don't have enough academics writing about the queer history of marginalized people, sad face.
One thing to note is that the book is very much a history not of the United States in totality, but of the contemporary LGBTQ community. It's a "how did we get here" kind of read. This is all well and good, but I thought there could have been better coverage of racial minorities (especially non-Black people of color), indigenous communities, the Latin American world, and rural/working-class/non-visible folks whose experiences didn't survive to become the "gay community" as we now imagine it.
As an example of what I was hoping to see: I remember my American women's history professor including lessons on Native American and West African women. Even though these histories were subsumed by European imperialism, we still studied them. In Bronski's defense, I'd hazard a guess that we don't have enough academics writing about the queer history of marginalized people, sad face.
k80uva's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting, covers a wide time period, and a good foundation for layering other sources onto. I used this as assigned reading for my LGBT history class and found it helpful, especially for the earlier time periods. As we move into the late 19th and 20th centuries I found the chapter breakdown a little quirkier and the forays into literary examples interesting but less helpful for my purposes. But despite its limitations it's a good starting point and it's hard to find another contender for a really strong synthesis of LGBT history over this time span.
jcthiem's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting read, I think I preferred "When Brooklyn Was Queer" Hugh Ryan but that's subjective. Both books provided insightful and often overlooked aspects of LGBT history in the US.
idk_indigo's review
informative
slow-paced
3.25
It was alright, I didn't love it & didn't hate it. It was interesting enough, though I do wish there had been more focus on POC & lesbian/women queer people. The audiobook was narrated well.
ktxx22's review against another edition
4.0
More like 3.5 stars. Another excellent historical collection of data, but much like my complaints with other histories from this group of books it’s too much like a text book. The audiobook narrator did a good job of bringing things to life, but there is tooooo much data on page it’s almost like a list of queer history where I prefer spending a little more time with individuals involved with queer history. It’s kinda like the La Croix of the historical book series. The data covered is massive but it’s just hints at events and if you want more information on something you like you’ll have to seek that out individually for the meat and potatoes of it all.