Overview

In 1864, the German jurist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs coined the term ""urning"" as a word for same-sex attracted men. Over the next few years, first anonymously and then publicly, he campaigned against the public persecution of these men. In response, some of his readers took on the urning terminology for themselves and engaged with Ulrichs to negotiate the finer points of their new identities. In Urning, Douglas Pretsell writes of same-sex attracted men in German-speaking Europe who used the neologism ""urning"" as a personal identity in the late nineteenth century. This was in the period before other terms such as ""homosexual"" gained currency. Drawing on letters, memoirs, and psychiatric case studies, the book uses first-hand autobiographical accounts to map out the contours of urning society. Urning further explores individual accounts of some urnings who attempted their own forms of activism to transform the world around them , even though they had no formal organization. As the century drew to a close, the efforts of Ulrichs and his urning followers paved the way for the launch of the world's first homosexual rights organization. Urning argues that the men who called themselves urnings were self-identified, self-constructed agents of their own destinies.

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9781487555603

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Reviews

"""By delving into unexplored archives of correspondence between Ulrichs and those who surrounded him, Pretsell undertakes an important new 'history from below.' He unpacks how a generation of men came to understand - and value - themselves as urnings, laying the groundwork for future generations of activists and queers. This is a scrupulously researched, insightful, and important book."" - Katie Sutton, Associate Professor of German and Gender Studies, Australian National University ""Douglas Pretsell's new book contributes to a lively reassessment of the interpretation of sexual knowledge (especially the emerging field of sexology) in relation to how real people understood themselves, to public consciousness of sexual difference, and to emancipation activism. What we see here is the strong degree to which queer people self-consciously intervened in their own representation, leading to - but also pushing against - the understandings of sexuality we take for granted today."" - Scott Spector, Rudolf Mrazek Collegiate Professor of History and German Studies, University of Michigan ""Urning tells the inspirational story of a group of nineteenth-century visionaries who pioneered what we now call LGBTQ+ consciousness and the struggle for queer freedom. They risked all to challenge the homophobic consensus a century before the 1969 Stonewall uprising. A fascinating hidden history revealed."" - Peter Tatchell, Activist and Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation ""This book is a major contribution to the study of an essential transition period in our understanding of the urning/homosexual."" - Hubert Kennedy, Author of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: Pioneer of the Modern Gay Movement"

Author Information

Douglas Pretsell is a historian at La Trobe University.

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