Customer Reviews

Homosexuality in History

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Spencer is trying to write a history of homosexuality that is not philosophical like Foucault's opus. He traces what I would call gayness from the BC era to the present day. This would be a good book for those unfamiliar with gay history. However, this book felt Eurocentric to me; he mentions little about well-researched areas of same-sex love in Asia or Native America. Also, Spencer's work is cursory; other authors have gone into depth in many of his topic areas. I liked Neil Miller's book on gay and lesbian history since the invention of the word "homosexuality" in the mid-1800s better than this book. This book is also male focused and may rub lesbian and bisexual women the wrong way. Still, for first-time readers of gay studies, this may be a good, initial, comprehensive book.

To cover such a vast stretch of historical distance between persons, places and events over a wide range of notable homosexual milestones in human history was surely a daunting task and is handled here surprisingly thoroughly. There's enough complexity for experts in the subject to be impressed, yet the material is simple and understandable enough even for rank amateurs and newcomers to the subject to benefit.