Fascinating reading on the plight of gay men and women through the ages. The contributors to this compassionate book document how society has made life difficult and even dangerous for homosexual people. Through narrative history as well as biography, these essays trace the legal, social, and physical consequences of this oppression.

This text provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues concerning gender and sexual nonconformity in the United States. The text is split into three parts covering the post-Civil war period to the 1980s, contemporary issues and legal arguments.

The largest collection of articles on homophobia published to date, this volume does much to expand the concept of homophobia as well as to discuss related research. Homophobia includes theoretical analyses of the concept of homphobia, critiques and innovations pertaining to its assessment, and its relationship to the biological sex of respondents, their self-perceived sex roles, and their etiological theories of homosexuality.

Since its founding twenty years ago the Journal of Social History has made substantial contributions to altering the way American historians look at and interpret their subject. It has served as a central outlet for new and exciting scholarship in social history, particularly European and American history but also Asian and Latin American as well. Under the editorship of Peter N. Stearns, the journal has published innovative work by many major American historians. Expanding the Past commemorates and highlights the achievements of the journal by republishing a selection of the most excellent articles that have appeared in the journal and that especially illustrate key features and trends in social history. These important essays cover issues such as illiteracy, work and gender roles, the police, kleptomania, immigration, and domesticity. Topics such as the history of old age, the social history of women, and working class history are explored. The volume reveals how historians define and deal with the most recent phenomena such as disease symptoms, the integration of subject matter to conventional issues like politics, and an enlargement of the past to embrace new elements. This book is an introduction to looking at the characteristic topics, methods, and particular insights of social history. Collectively, the essays represent some of the most vigorous and important work in this dynamic field of American historical research. They serve as an ideal vehicle for those readers who wish to further their understanding of this distinct approach to the past.

This book re-prints various essays on gay history from around Europe and America. Includes one essay in German and one in Italian.