Table of Contents

1. Gay and Lesbian History; 2. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome; 3. The Middle Ages; 4. Early Modern Europe, 1400 - 1700; 5. Male Homosexuality in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution, 1680 - 1850; 6. Lesbians and their Like in Early Modern Europe; 7. The Americas: From Colonial Times to the Twentieth Century; 8. The Homosexual Age, 1870 - 1940; 9. Public Spheres and Gay Politics since the Second World War; 10. Loving Women in the Modern World; 11. Discovering Homosexuality: Cross-Cultural Comparison and the History of Sexuality; 12. Homosexuality in the Islamic World; 13. Desire and Same-Sex Intimacies in Asia; 14. The Gay World: 1980 to the Present.

About the Author

Robert Aldrich is Professor of History, University of Sydney. His many publications include The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasy and Colonialism and Homosexuality.

Reviews

As the title suggests, this book has a large agenda. Aldrich (European history, Univ. of Sydney; The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art, and Homosexual Fantasy) is one of the best-known gay historians writing today, and he is well equipped for the task, bringing together 14 scholars from all over the world to address topics from ancient times to the present. The essays are aimed at a general audience, but scholarly notes and bibliographies are appended. While some of the history is well known, many readers will be surprised by the varieties of same-sex love in Asian and Islamic cultures. Still, Western cultures are better covered than others; for example, there is no essay on sub-Saharan Africa. The illustrations are the glory of the volume. It would be easy to have simply selected clich?d images, but here they are uniformly fresh and interesting. The main strength of this volume, however, is its drawing together into one volume disparate histories that had hitherto been accessible only in specialist works. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.-David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.