The Gay Metropolis (Hardcover)

by Charles Kaiser (Author) "SANDY KERN grew up on Amboy Street, the Brooklyn block where the boys from Murder, Incorporated, used to shoot craps in front of Olesh's Candy..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, San Francisco, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996, a history of gay life centered in New York, is packed with tales of writers and literature. Kaiser provides a kaleidoscope of details and stories that create a vision of how gay people lived, and illuminates a culture that had enormous influence on both New York and American society. Kaiser writes about such luminaries as Gore Vidal, Edward Albee, Truman Capote, and James Baldwin, but the real drive of The Gay Metropolis is how gay art and writings transformed the lives of everyday gay people. By the end of the book it is clear that gay artistic influence has transformed the American metropolis for both heterosexuals and homosexuals.

From Library Journal
Journalist Kaiser (1968 in America, LJ 10/15/88) explores how postwar New York City "became the literal gay metropolis for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from within and without the United States" and the city's role in this panorama of American gay social history. Beginning on the eve of World War II, the book depicts each decade via a series of oral histories that present a penetrating portrait of gay life in New York and provide context to the historical events that shaped that life. Kaiser's focus omits some crucial events: the murder of Harvey Milk in San Francisco is barely mentioned; and although a few women are interviewed, lesbians get short shrift. But these are minor caveats to an otherwise superb chronicle of the forces that have molded queer lives, and American society in general, for six decades. Kaiser achieves remarkable coherence and comprehensiveness; highly recommended for all gay/lesbian studies and American history collections.
-?Richard Violette, Social Law Lib., Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 404 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (November 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 029784217X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395657812
• ASIN: 0395657814
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,277,571 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 22, 1998

By	Joyce Kaufman "jkauf58689" (Sunrise, Fl USA) - See all my reviews

I was one of the several fortunate students to be present at your lecture and discussion this year at Nova Center. I found the topic most interesting, and your approach to this very controversial subject made me want to read and learn more about the "Gay Metropolis." Much of my family is from New York, but the prevalence of such a large homosexual community went relatively unnoticed during my visits there. Perhaps my family attempted to shield me from the realities of the world, but your discussion certainly opened my eyes. I personally enjoy historical accounts more than fictional novels, and your book was certainly filled with personal statements and interviews with people. From what I have read thus far, I have learned that the gay community has remained relatively stable from 1940 to 1996, but its level of exposure has altered dramatically with the times. The lifestyle was basically unacceptable by many social standards during the 1950s, and most writers considered the subject taboo, with the exception of Alan Ginsberg of course. The 1960s seemed to present new opportunities for expression and a general liberal sentiment pervaded society though the counter-cultures of this decade. I personally enjoy the matter-of-fact and humorous manner in which you present the book. You did not intend of gathering sympathy for an oppressed group but rather managed to portray the ridiculous tendencies of society for their views on a significant portion of Americans. As you can tell by the length of this note, your book has had a tremendous impact on my view of this whole issue. I always knew that our society suppressed the gay communities, but the extent of this was always a mystery to me. The history books do not begin to explain the wide-spread nature of the problem, and the laws passed did not take immediate effect to relieve these people. It has taken decades and decades to transform the views of many people, and there is still much to be done. I believe your book was courageous step in the right direction.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The rainbow prism shines in Kaiser's book., February 11, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Lewis Whittington) - See all my reviews

(The Fabulous) Gay (Life)

Straight America may always be schizophrenic in its relationship with the gay community, but as evidenced in Charles Kaiser's THE GAY METROPOLIS 1940-1996 (Houghton Mifflin Co., $27), no matter what the level of rejection, toleration or acceptance- there was no stopping us then and there is no stopping us now.

Kaiser tracts a burgeoning gay community, building as a collective force, at the national upheaval of America during WWII. What emerged in US cities at the time is a formidable, if rutterless minority. One that didn't seek to mirror the dominant straight society, but rather, was forced to be refracted by it, through an arbitrary sexually fuedalism.

Kaiser's sober, respectably researched and thoughly engrossing book is a light panoramic history of the indeflagitable homosexual urban culture in the US since that defining period. Interviewing many who where there then and here now, he draws sharp parallels and contrasts that show how far we have come and how far we have to go.

The gay mines have been swept and few exploded in THE GAY METROPOLIS- The least of them turns out to be scandalous exposes of celebrities and politicals in pre-liberation days. Although, a little bombe like the fact that House on Un-American Activities Sen. Joe McCarthy didn't rout out homosexuals (an institutionalized government tactic since WWI), along with his commies because he had sex with men, is delicious.

The real mushroom cloud in this book is that lesbian and gay men through sheer normalcy of will thrived in pre-Stonewall decades no matter what forces moved to oppress them. From fascinating personal remembrances of non-celebrities to the sublime tales of the infamous, Kaiser is expert in interfacing the infinite cross-culturalism that has molded gay life, for better or worse.

It's obvious from the assessable scope of this book that Kaiser has both the authoritative power of a historian and the storytelling flair of a great novelist. For instance, writing potently of the shrouded shenanigans of McCarthy aide Roy Cohn, New York columnist Joseph Alsop, J. Edgar Hoover, among other politically powerful closet queens, Kaiser de-sensationalizes the venomous gossip and instead disects the socio-political background that produced such internalized homophobia.

Another laudable method Kaiser employs is to regard all expressions of gay life worthy of even-handed reporting, from the (necessary) clandestine trysting places of toilets and salons to the complex socio-political structures of the gay-rights movement, the whole prism is in there.

Yet he always brings the antecdotes back to the point that, all along, no matter what the gay-bashing flavor of the year is, for gays, it is always about a civil-rights struggle-

"Gay Life in New York City in the 1950s was by turn oppressive and exhilarating, a world of persecution and vast possiblilities."

Kaiser tends to fawn over the importance of the arts and celebrity as pivotal touchstones and breakthroughs within the gay community. His observations are fascinating, even asute, you get the feeling that he should have written a separate book. He goes on about gay milestones in the theater, yet gives an almost one-dimensional reportage of the New York lesbian community.

He provides a great service, though, in drawing perspective on the impact of the crucial scientific research of the 1950s of homosexuality by Alfred Kinsey and Dr. Evelyn Hooker, whose studies, along with the personal experiences of gays, provided the solid architecture for a unified gay rebellion, movement, liberation and community infra-structure.

He also heralds the almost forgotten achievements of early gay militantcy, such as that of The Mattachine Society, the first known grassroots gay organization, which was founded by Harry Hay.

Although the vibracy of Kaiser's chapters on the 40s and 50s quiets a bit by the time we get into the closer ring of the latter decades, he writes movingly and accurately about the early years of the gay community's response to the AIDS epidemic.

With this book, the author can join the list of important gay historians like John Boswell, George Chauncey, Elizabeth Kennedy and Martin Duberman in liberating the invisible and silent past. Crisp, objective and colorful, Charles Kaiser has rescued from obscurity, the private and public lost stories that have weaved the tapestry of the still unfurling gay flag.

Lewis Whittington

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gay Metropolis, June 17, 2007

By	I. Delatolas - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America (Paperback)

When I came to New York in 1991 at age 20, I was immediately sucked into Act Up and Queer Nation, the two main activists formations of the time. People were dying of AIDS rapidly. The city felt like a battlefield. Political funerals of Aids activists and marches against homophobic bars and kiss-ins in restaurants seemed to happen on a daily basis. Fury, rage and angry marches were the response to gay-bashings. You woke up and went to protest outside Bush senior's hotel room in midtown. Went to work, then after, you went to meetings where more actions were planned for the next day and so on. Marches against the homophobic cardinal and the Board of Education. 16 years later reading the Gay Metropolis I am struck by it's importance. I had forgotten all of the above. It was an exciting time. It was also a sad and scary time. Friends were passing away and getting an HIV test was one of the scariest things you could do. The Gay Metropolis has a more lasting effect on me when it deals with the times before my time, the 40' to 80's. What it was like to be gay back then. Every gay woman and man must read this book. It is essential to know where we have been while we are figuring out where we want to go in the future. For me one of the most effective aspects of the book is how Charles Kaiser let's the people who lived through those times tell their own personal story. The accumulative effect is a priceless oral history. Read about the chilling testimony of activists from the pre Stonewall era and how even people who were actively opposing homophobia, were afraid to be found out as gay by their bosses and friend and families. Or read about the freedom in the aftermath of Stonewall and the tidal wave of liberation it unleashed. Lastly this book is a love letter to New York City and its diverse populace. The mother of the Gay movement. The Gay Metropolis indeed.