Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, and a third, Havelock Ellis. At this time, the study of homosexuality was limited almost exclusively to the European continent. Books that were circulated freely in Europe were hardly known in England, and men who loved men were pushed to the margins of a society where masculinity was strenuously upheld. Carpenter and Symonds’ story and their brave stand against persecution is largely forgotten, but in such a hostile environment, their publications were highly significant. They were the first English contributions to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and, more importantly, opened the long struggle for the legal recognition of same-sex love that was finally achieved in 1967. The Fraternity of the Estranged will speak principally to the LGBT community and, in a time more accepting of sexual diversity, to a wider readership. It will also appeal to readers interested in history as it recounts what it was like to be homosexual in late-Victorian England.

During a time when homosexuality was prohibited, Edward Carpenter, John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis took a significant stance against persecution. Now, Brian Anderson writes an innovative history which recounts the significance of these men.

This book is a collection of English articles by Pan Guangdan, one of China’s most distinguished sociologists and eugenicists and also a renowned expert in education. Pan is a prolific scholar, whose collected works number some fourteen volumes. Pan's daughters Pan Naigu, Pan Naimu and Pan Naihe—all scholars of anthropology and sociology—began editing their father's published works and surviving manuscripts around 1978. The collected articles, written between 1923 and 1945, are representative of Pan’s insights on sociobiology, ethnology and eugenics, covering topics such as Christianity, opium, domestic war and China-Japan relations. The title of the book is taken from the fascinating two-part article “Socio-biological Implications in Confucianism”, which essentially reworks Confucius as a kind of “forefather” of socio-biological and eugenic thinking, showing Pan's promotion of “traditional” values. These articles, mostly published in Chinese Students’ Monthly and The China Critic, offer an excellent point of entry into Pan's ideas on population and eugenics, his polemics on family and marriage, and his intellectual positioning and self-fashioning. This collection is of great reference value, allowing readers to gain an overall and in-depth understanding of the development of Pan's academic thought, and to explore the spiritual world of the scholars brought together by The China Critic who were dedicated to rebuilding the Chinese culture and bridging the West and the East.