Gay Life and Culture: A World History
Edited by Robert Aldrich
Universe, 384 pages, $49.95
THIRTY, even twenty, years ago, a book titled Gay Life and Culture: A World History would have been unachievable because much of the research needed to produce such a work did not yet exist. Forty or fifty years ago, such a book would have been unthinkable because “gay” and “lesbian” as historical and cultural concepts were not around, at least as topics of academic pursuit. What a difference a few decades makes, and it’s a difference that’s largely due to the work of lesbians and gay men, along with our allies from the bisexual, transgender, and transsexual communities.
Gay Life and Culture is not exactly a culmination of the GLBT cultural revolution that has occurred over the last few decades, but it marks an important milestone.
