Reviews (2)

Transgender (Studies) Reader
The book arrived promptly. It was needed for a course reserve so the prompt service and delivery were greatly appreciated.

The Essential Text for Trans Issues and Theories.
The depth and breadth of the articles included in this compendium are astounding to say the least. In one large volume the authors have included samples of writings representing the theoretical to the practical and the lived experience in a time line from the 19th century through the present. The Reader gives a sense of our shared history from a wide variety of view points which affirms all of our lives. As a transgendered person and college student, I recommend the The Transgender Reader to anyone looking for clues to our hidden culture and the world we struggle in everyday. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gender Studies    3. General    4. History: World    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Transsexualism    8. Transsexuals    9. Transvestism    10. History / General   

Subjects:  1. California - Local History    2. Gay Studies    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: American    6. Lesbian Studies    7. Sociology    8. United States - General    9. United States - State & Local - West    10. American history    11. California    12. Literature of special Gay & Lesbian interest   

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gender Studies    3. Social Science    4. Sociology    5. Social Science / Gay Studies   

Editorial Review

Leslie Feinberg has been a leader in the transgender rights movement as long as such a movement has existed. This book is both deeply personal and widely researched. Feinberg examines perceptions of the body, the status of clothing, and the structures of societies that welcome or are threatened by gender variance. The portrait gallery that closes the book contains photographs and capsule biographies of contemporary transgendered people. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Transgender Warriors
Although the sections of this book dealing with contemporary issues are reasonably accurate, many historians have pointed out that the history section desperately needed to have been vetted by someone who studies the subject.
The best text book I've ever read
This book was refreshingly factual and frank.I was blown away by what I read about the history of the trans person - especially Joan of Arc!I am a big fan of this book because it has provided me with enough valuable backup material for my thesis.I have searched high and low for supporting quotes such as those found in Feinberg's writing.BUY THIS BOOK - it will end up like mine, with notes written all over every page and lots of folded pages, kept next to the bed for reading regularly.

Liberation Manifesto
This is a manifesto of transgender liberation.It will be remembered and read for many years to come.As a LGBT person, it really touched me.Some societies have honored us and some have murdered us.It is time for us to rise up and say enough.I will re-read this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    3. Gender Studies    4. Gender identity    5. History    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Transsexualism    9. Transsexuality    10. Transvestism    11. Gay & Lesbian studies    12. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Reviews (1)

Glaser's story brings humor and hope to gay Christians
Chris Glaser's book poinently and beautifully describes his struggle to find a place in the church as a gay man.Reading Chris' reflections on his own and the church's struggle with his sexuality and with the place ofhomosexuality within the church was an healing expereince for me.And histheology is good too!A must for any gay Christian. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Christian Sexual Ethics    3. Christian gays    4. Christianity - History - General    5. General    6. Glaser, Chris    7. Homosexuality    8. Presbyterian Church    9. Presbyterians    10. Reference    11. Religion - Socialissues    12. Religious aspects    13. United States    14. Christian social thought & activity    15. Sex & sexuality   

Reviews (5)

A CRYING SHAME -- A PUBLIC SCANDAL
Scholarship of this magnitude deserves to be, and should have been, published by one of ourmajor university presses -- Oxford University Press, Yale University Press, Harvard University Press -- the list is long.That is was not so published is a public scandal.After numerous, unconscionable rejections by major publishers JESUS AND THE SHAMANIC TRADITION OF SAME-SEX LOVEfinally found the light of day through Suspect Thoughts, a "press for connoisseurs of transgressive, intelligent literature."What it transgresses is the massive, unconscious -- or semi-conscious -- conspiracy of silence about the recent discoveries of the origins and errors of Christianity.That conspiracy prevail because the churches are unable to cope the truth. "You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free" said Jesus.The truth is making men free, but it is scaring the churches to death.What scares them is the truth about the connections between sex and religion that recent scholarship have uncovered, and they cling to untenable dogma like drowning men clutching at straws. The sound of revolution are in the street, and the churches cannot shut it out. The revolutions brought on by the 18th century Enlightenment pale by comparison with the revolution now underway.One of our more level headed leaders of that revolution is Will Roscoe, and what he tells us leaves the establishment frighten out of its wits.The pews stand empty.The churches are going out of business.The very fabric of Western civilization, as my book BE DONE ON EARTH demonstrates, is decadent and under stress.And the establishment cannot save itself by sticking its collective head, ostrich like, under the sands of media babble.Another Bastille Day is dawning.Right on Roscoe!

RITUAL NOTIONS OF ONE FLESH, ONE SPIRIT
A great read for anyone willing to court the notion of a shamanic healing ritual that involves passing spirit from one person to another through nudity and touch to become one flesh before separating into two bodies.This is NOT a gay tantric sex manual.It is a study of Jesus in history, religion, and literature in the light of shamanistic healing.It explores the implications of historical scripture version suppression...as in the suppressed version of the Gospel of St. Mark. It suggests a hierarchy of mystical baptisms...implying what Catholic and ProtestantChurches have to offer are ...if not lacking... at the very least, fundamental. Seek ye the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.

Earliest Baptisms and Their Possible Effects
In "Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same-Sex Love", Will Roscoe suggests that baptism is a Christian adaptation of some shamanic rituals in which a spirit passes from one person to another.There are cults in which the two individuals, one with a spirit, are nude and touch, with or without sex, to become one flesh with one spirit, before separating into two bodies with two spirits.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity    2. Christianity - History - General    3. Early church, ca. 30-600    4. Gay Studies    5. Gender Studies    6. History of doctrines    7. Homosexuality    8. Love    9. Religious aspects    10. Sexuality & Gender Studies    11. Social Science    12. Sociology    13. Gay & Lesbian studies    14. Religion / General    15. Religious social & pastoral thought & activity   

Subjects:  1. Current Affairs    2. Gay Studies    3. Gays in popular culture    4. Gender Studies    5. Homosexuality    6. Homosexuality in art    7. Homosexuality in motion pictur    8. Homosexuality in motion pictures    9. Lesbian Studies    10. Mass Media    11. Public opinion    12. Sociology    13. Cultural studies    14. Current Events / Mass Media    15. Film theory & criticism    16. Gay studies (Gay men)    17. History of specific subjects   

Reviews (6)

Weaknesses and Problems, but overall, not too bad...
Mondimore's book, now rather dated as it was published in 1996, is ambitious and manages within the space of such a short volume to cover a great deal of content.It provides both a survey of the history of homosexuality and homoeroticism as well as an exploration of its biological and psychological roots, delving into the construction of homosexual identities as well.Accessible and well written, it is in general, a very good primer on the matter.Such praise notwithstanding, several problems in Mondimore's treatment require attention.
An agreable discovery of facts
I've just finished reading Dr. Mondimore's book. Since I am more familiar with literature and the arts there was a large spectrum I was quite ignorant of. I am Mexican and eventhough I was quite aware that the Aztecs really hated what we now call homosexuality, I was pretty ignorant of other othre views of this pehenomenon in other pre-Hispanic cultures.
The Best General Work on Homosexuality I've Encountered
As a lesbian fascinated with lesbian and gay studies and history--and having participated in the making of some of it--I was more than interested in reading Dr. Mondimore's book.What I found was a book with overall balance, an excellent general source of information.I would recommend this book highly to heterosexuals, especially family members striving to deal with the homosexuality of a loved one.I would recommend it to the lesbian or gay seeking a better, broad-based understanding of themselves, their history, and the things which shape and influence them.Above all, I would recommend it to the person or group harboring an antihomosexual prejudice, be it from religious, cultural, or personal beliefs.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    3. Gender Studies    4. General    5. Homosexuality    6. Psychiatry - General    7. Sex (Biology)    8. Social Science    9. Sociology    10. Architecture / General    11. Cultural studies    12. Gay & Lesbian studies   

Reviews (13)

History at its Finest

A treasure chest of forgotten lore
This book was preceded in my conciousness by high critical praise and so I approached it with great expectations. And in great part it met these expectations. Fresh Thinking About Gay History
Chauncey's book offers serious and original thinking about queer history and about general urban history as well.Freed from the myths that have persisted about the place of homosexuals in U.S. society, the author paints a new portrait of what transpired just before the turn of the last century and into the early decades of the 20th century.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. General    3. History - General History    4. Men's Studies - Masculinity    5. Sociology    6. 20th century    7. Gay studies (Gay men)    8. Social history    9. USA   

Reviews (6)

Missing the Truth
Dover reopened in Greek Homosexuality (1978) the study by classicists of a subject disdained since 1933, when Hitler crushed the German Homosexual Emancipation Movement.However, Sir Kenneth denigrated Greek pederasty by claiming that it was merely lustful.He hypercritically refused to use sources dating from after the 4th century - even Plutarch's Lives, which, like the works of Lucian and Diodorus, notoriously cited and paraphrased lost classical sources, which themselves often relied on earlier oral and written accounts.This simplified the crotchety don's task and distorted his conclusions.His "book" is really a collection of four essays.The longest and most original are about erotic vases and a seamy lawsuit involving a kidnapping.How such a skimpy selection of sources could be expected to yield a valid thesis defies reason.
The Original History of Man-Boy Relations in Antiquity
When one considers that male-male relations had their dominant Western etiology in Greece antiquity, it's only natural to look back to the ancient records and artefacts to illustrate and examine how these relations existed in their antique form. What we see is probably different from what we expect.
Simply unreadable...
Once again I have to disagree with every other reviewer.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. Gay Studies    3. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    4. Gender Studies    5. Greece    6. History    7. Homosexuality    8. Homosexuality and art    9. Law and legislation    10. Lesbian Studies    11. Social History    12. Social Science    13. Ancient Greece    14. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    15. History / Ancient / General   

Editorial Review

It has only been since the mid-1970s that any attention has been paid to the persecution and interment of gay men by the Nazis during the Third Reich. Since that time, books such as Richard Plant's Read more

Reviews (15)

Couldn't put it down!!!
Such a good book. It gives a different perspective on the Holocaust. It's a page turner...I couldn't put it down once I got past the first few pages. Everyone one should read!

A Moving and Powerful True Account of Survival
A sodomy law had been on the German law books since 1871, a law known simply as Paragraph 175.Only a few people were ever sentenced under this obscure law until June of 1935 when, after the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Nuremberg laws were enacted and the consequences of Paragraph 175 strengthened.Where once before, you had to be caught in the act of same sex relations, now simply receiving a letter or the spreading of idle gossip would have you sent to a concentration camp. One Man's Story
Although short, this man's story could have benefitted from some thoughtful editing.Powerfully recounting his persecution at the hands of the Nazi regime, a full picture could have been painted had the author continued to tell its affects on the rest of his life AFTER World War II.An important book, no doubt, and definitely to be included in any Holocaust library. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Concentration camps    3. Europe - Germany    4. Gay Studies    5. Gay men    6. General    7. Germany    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History: World    11. Homosexuality    12. Homosexuality, Male    13. Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives    14. Military - World War II    15. History / General   

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Gay Studies    4. History - General    5. Nudes & Erotic    6. Subjects & Themes - General    7. Gay studies (Gay men)    8. Iconography, subjects depicted in art   

Subjects:  1. Criticism    2. Gay Studies    3. General    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. Erotic art    7. Gay & Lesbian studies    8. Social Science / Gay Studies   

Editorial Review

Renowned Southern California architectural photographer Julius Shulman began exploring Malibu in 1929. Nearly 80 years later, he is still bringing back pictures of paradise—except that the pristine landscape is now a backdrop for luxury homes. In Read more

Reviews (4)

Malibu
I thought that the book was "outstanding"Particulary liked the history part and the progression of Malibu over the years.

Fantastic!
Despite reading the "Nice, but not Nice Enough" comment by one reviewer, I purchased this book and considered it for myself. I'm so glad I did. The reviewer misses the point. It's an architecture-oriented lifestyle book about the history of living in Malibu, not a technical book. Which explains why there are no floorplans. It's about the photos that take you thru each decade and each house, and they are gorgeous. The introductory text/concise house-specific texts are well-written and informative. The featured houses are mostly private, which explains why no addresses are provided. The 2 or 3 houses in the book that are open to the public are well known in this area, easily findable for those who have a yellow pages.
Nice,but not nice enough
The photography was excellent and commentary was okay.Very few detail images, no floor plans and few, if any, construction details. I'm interested in the details and how to replicate features or at least the materials used....but nothing in this book to help much. There was absolutely no street addresses of the houses mentioned, other architect books do---why not here??? The author did manage to keep very good track of the years of birth and death of the people involved. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Architecture    3. Architecture, Domestic    4. California    5. Design & Construction    6. Domestic    7. Gay Studies    8. General    9. History - Specific Styles    10. Home Improvement / Construction    11. Malibu    12. U.S. Architecture - General    13. United States - West - Pacific (General)    14. Architecture / Domestic    15. Places & peoples: general interest    16. Residential buildings, domestic buildings   

Editorial Review

First published in 1981, this feminist classic began modestly as an academic essay on Emily Dickinson's love poems and letters to her future sister-in-law, Sue Gilbert. In her original introduction, Faderman recalled her surprise at finding these records of an erotic attachment between women that showed no evidence of guilt, anxiety, or the need for secrecy. Yet 60 or 70 years after they were written, the original letters had been bowdlerized by a niece of Dickinson's, who clearly found them too shocking for publication. Why, Faderman wondered, was passionate love between women, once almost universally applauded in the Western world, now almost universally condemned? She learned that the love between Dickinson and Gilbert had many precedents, and that it was only in the late 19th century that medical literature and antifeminism combined to rank women who loved women "somewhere," as she puts it bluntly, "between necrophiliacs and those who had sex with chickens." For this new edition, Faderman explains that she has resisted the urge to update her text, hoping that her exploration of romantic friendship, from French libertine literature through the dawn of feminism through the lesbian panic of the 1920s will still serve as "solace and ammunition" for those hoping to find "a usable past." Read more

Reviews (1)

3.5 stars but this thing doesn't do halves
The author forcefully insists on the real passion between the women that she studies; this becomes to me repetitive and distracting.However, given the historical context of this book, in which a "lesbianrecovery" of history was less accepted, I see the purpose of hertactics.In any case, the author draws together a wealth of evidence thatmakes for fascinating and provocative reading, even if she does lean a bittoo much on literary examples as proof of what attitudes were"really."She makes a strong case, though.Recommended. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. History    2. History: American    3. Lesbian Studies    4. Lesbianism    5. Lesbians    6. Love    7. Psychology    8. Social Science    9. Sociology    10. Sociology Of Women    11. Women's Studies - History    12. Social Science / Lesbian Studies    13. Women's studies   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gender Studies    3. Heterosexuality    4. Homosexuality    5. Social Science    6. Social aspects    7. Sociology    8. Sociology - General    9. Sociology of disability    10. CULTURE    11. Disability: social aspects    12. Gay & Lesbian studies    13. History / Civilization    14. MARGINALITY, SOCIAL   

Reviews (1)

Overpowering Foucault...
Sara Mills' text on Michel Foucault is part of a recent series put out by the Routledge Press, designed under the general editorial direction of Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway, University of London), to explore the most recent and exciting ideas in intellectual development during the past century or so. To this end, figures such as Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricouer and other influential thinkers in critical thought are highlighted in the series, planned to include more than 21 volumes in all.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1926-1984    2. European - French    3. Foucault, Michel    4. Foucault, Michel,    5. Gay & Lesbian    6. History & Surveys - Modern    7. Literary Criticism    8. Philosophy    9. Semiotics & Theory    10. French    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / French    12. Western philosophy, from c 1900 -   

Reviews (16)

Life-affirming
What a wonderful and timely book for the 21st century. The authors are to be congratulated on the clarity and strength of their vision. I can't wait for the next edition, which I believe includes help for black people who want to turn white.

A firm and loving book
This book shows parents (or others) how to love people who choose a gay identity when the parents disagree with that choice.It walks the fine line of speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) to someone who is promoting homosexuality. It is well-written, has good ideas for ways to keep communication going, and above all seeks the best for the person who espouses the gay identity.

Good book!
I bought this book to get some understanding as to how I should cope w/a friend who is a lesbian.It gave me better understanding of how they feel and even how I would/do feel.It was a good book and I'm glad I got it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied Christian Sexual Ethics    2. Christianity    3. Christianity - History - General    4. Church work with gays    5. Ethics    6. Homosexuality    7. Religion    8. Religion - Church History    9. Religious aspects   

Reviews (2)

A poignant memoir, although ultimately sad.
I like Stephen Spender.That is, of course, I like his poetry that I've read as well as his introduction to my favorite novel:Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano.I like this book too.But, first of all, there's altogether too much name-dropping, which becomes rather tedious at times.Some of the anecdotes are quite rum, like the ones involving Lady Ottoline Morrel.But all this Bloomsbury-Virginia Woolf business gets on one's nerves (well, mine anyway) after a while.I don't think Spender's homosexual relationship is the most important thing in the book; though it was doubtless courageous of Spender to include it as well as indispensable to getting this book back in print!The most important thing in the book is the difference in the pre- versus post- Spanish Civil War mindset among sensitive, well-bred intelllectuals among whom Spender was a figure.Before the war, Spender says, it seemed that individuals (particularly idealists) could make a difference.After the war, all that had not been killed fighting Franco (and there were many) were disillusioned and glum, especially Spender.Finally, this book has a sad tone that runs from Spender's school days to his middle age.He was a cultured, gifted writer who had not, by his middle ages, produced a "great work."And, despite the Queen's Gold Medal and Knighthood in later years, his melancholy grew worse.He speaks of himself at the end of the book as "rotted by a modicum of success" and admits that "My mistake was to think that my own nature would make everything easy."-The strange thing is that he didn't shake this attitude off.He was only halfway through his life.I was going to make put forth some hypotheses as to why, but, really, it's anybody's guess. Isn't it?

Excellent Memoir
Memoirs have become ubiquitous recently, a favored literary form. World Within World is one of the best. Stephen Spender, one of England's leading twentieth century poets and literary figures wrote this book less than half way into his long life, covering his youth and early middle age through World War Two.While this book became notorious a few years back as the source of a lawsuit for plagiarism brought by Spender against David Leavitt over his book While England Sleeps, the book has merit far beyond the controversy. The incident which forms the basis of the dispute, Spender's rescue efforts on behalf of a former lover during the Spanish Civil War, is merely one of the interesting and illuminating episodes and set pieces of this book.Spender, growing up in the wake of World War One, in a well-connected family, encountered some of the leading literary figures of the Twentieth Century. He was a contemporary and friend of W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and Cyril Connolly, whom he incisively sketches and analyzes, both in terms of personality and work. He was taken under the wings of such giants as Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot, who form the basis of two fascinating portraits. Most memorable perhaps is his description of a meeting with William Butler Yeats at Lady Ottoline Morrill's salon that started out quite disastrously but was rescued by Lady Ottoline's desperate telephone call to Woolf. Not only does he describe the literary scene in England, but also the atmosphere of Weimar Germany, Civil War Republican Spain and World War Two England. Indeed we get a glimpse of the Berlin boarding house immortalized by Isherwood and later in Cabaret.As memorable as he is in describing others, Spender is balanced, acute and unsparing in his self-analysis. Aware of the characteristics of his work that distinguishes it from that of others, he gives insight into his creative methods and process, rescuing poetry from misty philosophizing and dogmatic pronouncements. There is little self-aggrandizement or puffery and very little malice if any in this book. Its style is clear and its content admirable. It is well worth reading. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1909-    2. 20th century    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Critics    8. Great Britain    9. Literary    10. Poets, English    11. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    12. Spender, Stephen - Poems & Criticism    13. Spender, Stephen,    14. Biography & Autobiography / Literary    15. Biography: general    16. English    17. Literature: History & Criticism    18. Spender, Stephen    19. Works by individual poets: from c 1900 -