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A review by theayeaye
Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights by Eric Marcus
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
A fascinating oral history of the American gay civil rights movement. Eric Marcus does a lovely job of presenting politically diverse people and viewpoints. I love that he centers their voices and their experiences without interjecting a unifying narrative. The book lets people speak for themselves, which shows Marcus's deftness for interviewing, editing and presentation.
The book presents key people who were part of the gay civil rights movement. Rather than bridging their perspectives into a historical march of progress, we see a movement full of passionate people with different priorities and perspectives, people who often fought among themselves and fought alongside each other. Making Gay History does what I wish all historical texts could do: the book introduces us to the people who were there and how their disparate views coalesced into progress.
I read this book cover to cover and found the early sections a slough to get through. If you find history books tough (like I do) I would suggest picking up this book and reading a few stories here and there, and skipping to periods of time that you're interested in learning more about. For me, the book was slow until the period around the 1970's, but from that section on, I was totally hooked.
The book presents key people who were part of the gay civil rights movement. Rather than bridging their perspectives into a historical march of progress, we see a movement full of passionate people with different priorities and perspectives, people who often fought among themselves and fought alongside each other. Making Gay History does what I wish all historical texts could do: the book introduces us to the people who were there and how their disparate views coalesced into progress.
I read this book cover to cover and found the early sections a slough to get through. If you find history books tough (like I do) I would suggest picking up this book and reading a few stories here and there, and skipping to periods of time that you're interested in learning more about. For me, the book was slow until the period around the 1970's, but from that section on, I was totally hooked.