Overview

The ""monumental"" (Washington Post), field-defining history of gay life in New York City in the early to mid-20th century Gay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed in the closet, where all gay men were isolated, invisible, and ashamed. Based on years of research in diaries, letters, newspaper stories, and police reports, Chauncey describes the saloons, speakeasies, and streets where queer men gathered; the intimate parties and immense drag balls where they celebrated; the highly visible residential enclaves they built in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and Times Square; and the complex prewar sexual culture they inhabited, which did not divide men into heterosexuals and homosexuals. It offers new perspectives on the LGBT rights revolution of our time by showing that the oppression the movement attacked in the 1960s was not unchanging, but had intensified in the 1930s as a direct response to the visibility of the prewar gay world. Awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Organization of American Historians' prize for the best first book in any field of history upon its publication in 1994, Gay New York remains a revelatory account of a long-forgotten world and the most widely taught book in American LGBT history.

Full Product Details

9781541699212

Table of Contents

Reviews

Even if you are not a devotee of theory or history, you will want to read Gay New York for its profusion of anecdotal detail--its coordinates of a Gay Atlantis, a buried city of Everard Baths, Harlem drag balls, and Vaseline alley. Chauncey has found evidence of a gay world whose complexity and cohesion no previous historian dared to imagine. --Wayne Koestenbaum, Los Angeles Times Chauncey's genius is the way he combines real lives and theory...a sharp and readable analysis of the way boundaries between 'normal' and 'abnormal' men bent and blurred in the early parts of the century. --Out It's the fun, more than anything--the pleasure, the parties, the high jinks, the sex, and, yes, the love that gay men bear one another--that shines through so brightly...[a book of] erudition, discernment, sympathy, and wit. --New York Observer The impact made by this richly textured study is powerful. --Publisher's Weekly A brilliant ethnographic analysis. --The Nation A brilliantly researched gift of history...unassailable. --Boston Globe Gay New York isn't just the definitive history of gays in New York from 1890 through 1940; it's also a wonderful account of the metropolitan character of modern gayness itself. --L.A. Times A stunning contribution not only to gay history, but to the study of urban life, class, gender--and heterosexuality. --Kirkus A first-rate book of history...about all urban life, telling us as much about the heterosexual world as about the homosexual one. --New York Times One of the most fascinating works of American social history I've ever read. --Frank Rich, New York Times Monumental...a vital achievement in redefining and reassessing gay history. --Washington Post

The impact made by this richly textured study is powerful. --Publisher's Weekly A brilliant ethnographic analysis. --The Nation A brilliantly researched gift of history...unassailable. --Boston Globe Gay New York isn't just the definitive history of gays in New York from 1890 through 1940; it's also a wonderful account of the metropolitan character of modern gayness itself. --L.A. Times One of the most fascinating works of American social history I've ever read. --Frank Rich, New York Times Even if you are not a devotee of theory or history, you will want to read Gay New York for its profusion of anecdotal detail--its coordinates of a Gay Atlantis, a buried city of Everard Baths, Harlem drag balls, and Vaseline alley. Chauncey has found evidence of a gay world whose complexity and cohesion no previous historian dared to imagine. --Wayne Koestenbaum, Los Angeles Times Chauncey's genius is the way he combines real lives and theory...a sharp and readable analysis of the way boundaries between 'normal' and 'abnormal' men bent and blurred in the early parts of the century. --Out It's the fun, more than anything--the pleasure, the parties, the high jinks, the sex, and, yes, the love that gay men bear one another--that shines through so brightly...[a book of] erudition, discernment, sympathy, and wit. --New York Observer A stunning contribution not only to gay history, but to the study of urban life, class, gender--and heterosexuality. --Kirkus A first-rate book of history...about all urban life, telling us as much about the heterosexual world as about the homosexual one. --New York Times Monumental...a vital achievement in redefining and reassessing gay history. --Washington Post

"""A brilliant ethnographic analysis.""--The Nation ""A brilliantly researched gift of history...unassailable.""--Boston Globe ""A first-rate book of history...about all urban life, telling us as much about the heterosexual world as about the homosexual one.""--New York Times ""A stunning contribution not only to gay history, but to the study of urban life, class, gender--and heterosexuality.""--Kirkus ""Chauncey's genius is the way he combines real lives and theory...a sharp and readable analysis of the way boundaries between 'normal' and 'abnormal' men bent and blurred in the early parts of the century.""--Out ""Even if you are not a devotee of theory or history, you will want to read Gay New York for its profusion of anecdotal detail--its coordinates of a Gay Atlantis, a buried city of Everard Baths, Harlem drag balls, and Vaseline alley. Chauncey has found evidence of a gay world whose complexity and cohesion no previous historian dared to imagine.""--Wayne Koestenbaum, Los Angeles Times ""Gay New York isn't just the definitive history of gays in New York from 1890 through 1940; it's also a wonderful account of the metropolitan character of modern gayness itself.""--L.A. Times ""It's the fun, more than anything--the pleasure, the parties, the high jinks, the sex, and, yes, the love that gay men bear one another--that shines through so brightly...[a book of] erudition, discernment, sympathy, and wit.""--New York Observer ""Monumental...a vital achievement in redefining and reassessing gay history.""--Washington Post ""One of the most fascinating works of American social history I've ever read.""--Frank Rich, New York Times ""The impact made by this richly textured study is powerful.""--Publisher's Weekly"

Author Information

George Chauncey is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and previously taught at Yale and the University of Chicago. He is also the author of Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today's Debate Over Gay Equality.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available