About the Author

David K. Johnson is a writer and editor in Chicago who has taught U.S. history at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University.

Reviews

"The Lavender Scare is a very readable and valuable work that clarifies the relationship between the Cold War and national security interests, and those victimized by the need to preserve said security. . . . This work will take its place beside those of George Chauncey and Allen Berube, and every serious student of 20th century American history should own it."--Aaron L. Bachhofer "Archives of Sexuality"

"The Lavender Scare provides a superb overview of this period in American history. . . . It's a must-read for gay and lesbian federal employees, and would serve as an excellent text for college or graduate-level courses in history, sociology, political science, or gay studies."--Lawrence Reynolds "Gay & Lesbian Review"

"A riveting history of gay-baiting in the McCarthy era"-- "In These Times"

"By demonstrating the extent to which gay history is part of mainstream history, [Johnson] continues the important academic endeavor of bringing the margins to the center."--Fiona Paton "American Quarterly"

"Johnson's work assures that we shall never again be able to think about the anticommunist crusade without acknowledging its fierce counterpart that affected the lives of so many people."--Leila J. Rupp "Journal of American History"

"Keenly observed and elegantly written, with a sense of mystery and suspense indicative of the era, Johnson's book will reorient scholarship on the Cold War as it models a more complex method for integrating queer community history with economic and political history."--John Howard "GLQ"

"What does it say about the historical profession that it has taken nearly 30 more years to tell this story? Fortunately, David K. Johnson has done so with intelligence, sensitivity, and grace. We are all in his debt."--Ellen Schrecker "American Communist History"

"The hoary rhetoric about the supposedly treasonous/treacherous nature of homosexuality that the historian David K. Johnson documents in his fine new book can initially strike a reader as amusing. The homophobic fulmination of varoius McCarthy-era senators and representatives he quotes are fatuous, if not ludicrous. But as The Lavender Scare goes on to reveal, the jaw-dropping extent of the federal government's persecution of its gay and lesbian employees in the '50s and '60s turns amusement into rage."--Kevin Riordan "The Washington Blade"

"The Lavender Scare, a phrase invented David K. Johnson, alludes to the systematic persecution of homosexuals (both men and women) in Washington, DC, that began in the early years of the Cold War and lasted until, roughly, the early 1970s. It was the Siamese twin of the notorious Red Scare, which had a similar lifespan and started for similar reasons. Given the degree of injustice and the scale of the suffering caused by the Lavender Scare, it seems astonishing that no one before Johnson has thought to write its history, whereas there is a small library of books dealing with the anti-Communist crusade. . . . Time has thus created an opportunity and Dr. Johnson has seized it. His book is detailed, accurate, and fair-minded. . . . It deserves to stand on the shelf next to The Great Fear by David Caute, and should be studied by everyone who is interested in the McCarthy era and its implications."--Hugh Brogan "Times Literary Supplement" (5/21/2004 12:00:00 AM)

"Fifty years ago, gays 'confronted a degree of policing and harassment that is almost unimaginable to us today' and which now is almost entirely forgotten. David K. Johnson's The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government is a heart-wrenching reminder that homosexuals faced brutal employment discrimination and endless police hostility."--David J. Garrow "Los Angeles Times"

"An important work of gay scholarship that proves, once and for all, that the Lavender Scare was not a minor adjunct of the Red Scare, but a major government campaign in its own right. . . . The Lavender Scare is more than a great work of history. It is a cautionary tale."--Jesse Monteagudo "The Weekly News"