Awards

• Short-listed for WCGS Book Prize 2022 Awarded by The Waterloo Centre for German Studies 2023 (Canada)
• Winner of 2023 Barclay Book Prize Awarded by the German Studies Association 2023 (United States)
• Winner of Smith Book Prize awarded by the Southern Historical Association, European History Section 2022 (United States)

Overview

States of Liberation examines gay persecution and liberation in both East and West Germany during the Cold War. States of Liberation traces the paths of gay men in East and West Germany from the violent aftermath of the Second World War to the thundering nightclubs of present-day Berlin. Following a captivating cast of characters, from gay spies and Nazi scientists to queer politicians and secret police bureaucrats, States of Liberation tells the remarkable story of how the two German states persecuted gay men - and how those men slowly, over the course of decades, won new rights and created new opportunities for themselves in the heart of Cold War Europe. Relying on untapped archives in Germany and the United States as well as oral histories with witnesses and survivors, Huneke reveals that communist East Germany was in many ways far more progressive on queer issues than democratic West Germany.

Full Product Details

9781487542146

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Reviews

By carefully examining the lives of gay men in the postwar era, Samuel Clowes Huneke's gracefully written and deeply researched book provides new insights into the differences - and similarities - in West and East German states and society. -- James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Stanford University Samuel Clowes Huneke's highly anticipated and superb book disturbs complacent Cold War-era assumptions about liberal democracy's 'natural' inclination toward expanding rights and state socialism's alleged failures. -- Monica Black, Professor of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Samuel Clowes Huneke brilliantly excavates the half-forgotten story of gay activism on both sides of the Iron Curtain, with startling results for those who assume only capitalist democracy can cradle our futures. -- Dan Healey, Professor of Modern Russian History, University of Oxford

By carefully examining the lives of gay men in the postwar era, Samuel Clowes Huneke's gracefully written and deeply researched book provides new insights into the differences - and similarities - in West and East German states and society. - James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Stanford University Samuel Clowes Huneke brilliantly excavates the half-forgotten story of gay activism on both sides of the Iron Curtain, with startling results for those who assume only capitalist democracy can cradle our futures. - Dan Healey, Professor of Modern Russian History, University of Oxford Samuel Clowes Huneke's highly anticipated and superb book disturbs complacent Cold War-era assumptions about liberal democracy's 'natural' inclination toward expanding rights and state socialism's alleged failures. - Monica Black, Professor of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Author Information

Samuel Clowes Huneke is an assistant professor of history at George Mason University.

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