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poisonenvy's review
3.0
This book was extraordinarily detailed, though more often than not very dry. Occasionally, Marwick would add in a bit of dry wit or British understatement that would make me chuckle, but for the most part this was a highly informative, well-researched slough.
I do question a little about the things he chose to cover though. He goes back a number of times to city ordinances that would see bypasses go through city parks in the US as a way to highlight environmentalism, but then makes absolutely no mention of the Stonewall Riots. None at all. (There are references to gay liberation being won through a couple of pamphlets [one of these very few examples he gives is pro-pedophilia, as if to imply that the entire movement was pro-pedophilia], and there's one mention of the Stonewall bar in the approximately five pages he dedicated to gay liberation, but not one mention of the riot that took place in 1969), and I don't recall any mention to what was going on in Europe in terms of gay liberation. There's a single reference to the disabled community winning accessibility rights to public spaces, but there's no reference at all to how this came about. You'd think in 800 pages we could have had at least some mention of either of these things.
Still, as far as sixties histories go, this seems to be pretty thorough, and filled with plenty of comparisons between the titular countries. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for very detailed and academic comparative history from 1958 - 1974.
I do question a little about the things he chose to cover though. He goes back a number of times to city ordinances that would see bypasses go through city parks in the US as a way to highlight environmentalism, but then makes absolutely no mention of the Stonewall Riots. None at all. (There are references to gay liberation being won through a couple of pamphlets [one of these very few examples he gives is pro-pedophilia, as if to imply that the entire movement was pro-pedophilia], and there's one mention of the Stonewall bar in the approximately five pages he dedicated to gay liberation, but not one mention of the riot that took place in 1969), and I don't recall any mention to what was going on in Europe in terms of gay liberation. There's a single reference to the disabled community winning accessibility rights to public spaces, but there's no reference at all to how this came about. You'd think in 800 pages we could have had at least some mention of either of these things.
Still, as far as sixties histories go, this seems to be pretty thorough, and filled with plenty of comparisons between the titular countries. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for very detailed and academic comparative history from 1958 - 1974.
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