Customer Reviews

The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives & Gay Identities - A Twentieth-Century History

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John Loughery has written a highly readable survey of 20th century gay history. It debunks many of the myths surrounding the grand narrative that has been constructed around gay history, meaning that it all started at Stonewall. Particularly interesting to me was his discussion of gay rights activists in the 1950s. He evokes the terror of the McCarthy years well and how courageous those first steps towards gay pride must have been. His incisive exploration of the massive social changes for men and women in the 1930s is also quite interesting. One great strength of the book is the breadth of interviews he uses in the book. You hear the voices of men of all ages from throughout the US. This is what history should be: interesting, funny, a compelling narrative yet complex and challenging. I have learned a lot about 20th Century US history as well. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in contemporary history.

This book has been one of the best history books I have ever read. It is not only complete, but also well written in a very clear style which allowed a non-native english speaker like me to read it without much difficulty.
"The other side of silence" helped me understand the developments of the gay movement in the US, which give us many clues to understand its evolution in other parts of the world.
But I want to stress one particular aspect: Loughery's book is an excellent work of American history. As a non-US citizen, I have learnt a great deal about the evolution of American society in the 20th century. Explaining gay people's lives in the fifties, we get a clear picture of those rather somber postwar years in which suspicion seemed to be the rule. Then, we witness the ideological maelstrom of the 60s and 70s, a manifestation of which was the gay liberation movement in its openly militant version (which is not the birth of this movement, Loughery makes it very clear). Finally we are introduced to new right reaction, new conservatism, and AIDS crisis.
It is precisely its being an excellent book of American History which makes it a brilliant introduction to gay US history. Thanks to this book I have been able to better understand the movements which take place within American society. Those movements which often cause perplexity to a European mind, when confronted to the paradoxical coexistence of sodomy laws, far right influence, on one side, and one of the most active gay communities in the world, on the other.

This book is excellent, not just for terrritory that has been well covered before, but especially for revealing the earliest origins of gay life and political movements of the past 70 years in America.

It is refreshing to see someone attempting something approaching an actual popular history of gay people in America rather than the constantly invoked mythologies and distortions that usually pass for it.

This is an accessible book intended for the average reader, and if it gets widely read it could be a boon to rectifying the distorted picture American gay people have of their past. The bizarre idea that there was no such thing as being "out" prior to the Stonewall events and that there was no substantial gay subculture prior to then - vibrantly lived in the face of the overwhelmingly negative social environment - can finally be pitched into the waste basket where it belongs. The events surrounding the Stonewall raid opened up the eyes of many closeted men and women to the fact that thousands of gay men and women had already created a thriving subculture, and that given the extreme liberal drift in late 60s and early 70s it was safe to come out and participate in it if you dared.

An excellent, well written, researched and fascinating book that chronicles the life of homosexuals through the 20th Centrury. I can't imagine a book that could ever top this book for insight, accuracy and profoundity. I wish everyone--gay or straight--would read this.

Very helpful in providing a sense of the change in the ...[gay] social scene in the United States. Loughery writes clearly using a good balance of factual trivia and generalizations. After reading this book, a ...[gay] ally will be better prepared to discuss human rights and the social constructs of gender and sexuality.

Lougherty's monograph is simply the most comphrensive and most entertaining look at the evolution of gay rights in the past century. Starting with the police and military's treatment of gay servicemen in World War I and concluding with the formulations and issues with the gay movements of the 1990's, Lougherty tastefully explicates every issue that has affected gay and lesbian Americans. I was personally most interested in his first-person accounts from World War II veterans explaining both the military's systematic expunging of gay servicemen and its facilitation of gay self-identification by letting closet gays serve together. His examination of the McCarthy era and the Mattachine Society's beginnings are also quite interesting. His descriptions of the early peaceful protests were fascinating, providing a stark contrast to the peaceful protests I see as a student today. The first-person approach to gay history is something greatly needed in our movement, and I'm glad Lougherty was able to publish this before it's too late. A great read for people interested in the truths in gay history!