The study of gay and lesbian history has, during the past two decades, grown enormously. Early work such as Jonathan Katz's 1978 Gay American History and Allen Bérubé's 1990 titleComing Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two have paved the way for more historically detailed work. Creating a Place For Ourselves is a fine anthology of 11 essays that detail the formation of specific queer communities across a wide historical and geographic span including Buffalo, New York, in the 1940s; Washington, D.C. in the 1950s; and Philadelphia in the early 1970s. While the essays are by academics, they are accessible, readable, and highly informative.


From Library Journal
Butch lesbians in Buffalo, high-class lesbians in Cherry Grove, gay auto workers in Flint, and all sorts of gay folk in San Francisco and New York are all found in this collection of essays examining the development of myriad gay communities in the country. Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Birmingham, and Philadelphia are also covered. Doubts that there were sizable gay communities before Stonewall will now be put to rest. Sometimes focusing on specific events or subgroups, the sociological studies collected here by Beemyn (African American studies, Univ. of Iowa) demonstrate how gay and lesbian gathering places served not only as venues for sexual contact but also provided a social network. The police raids and harassment, threats from neighbors, and government surveillance that were customary before Stonewall (and even in parts of the country today) are discussed here. But the focus is on how gay and lesbian communities not only survived but passed on a legacy through it all. Highly recommended for gay and lesbian studies collections.?Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, PhiladelphiaCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


John D'Emilio, The Journal of American History - 3/98
"This rich and varied collection will allow teachers of social history and of the twentieth-century United States to incorporate material on sexual identity more easily into their courses."


Lesbian Review of Books
"The essays in Creating a Place for Ourselves provide important and inspirational building blocks in the ever-expanding field of lesbian, gay, and bisexual community studies."


Book Description
Creating a Place For Ourselves is a groundbreaking collection of essays that examines gay life in the United States before Stonewall and the gay liberation movement. Along with examining areas with large gay communities such as New York, San Francisco and Fire Island, the contributors also consider the thriving gay populations in cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Washington, D.C., Birmingham and Flint, demonstrating that gay communities are truly everywhere.Contributors: Brett Beemyn, Nan Alamilla Boyd, George Chauncey, Madeline Davis, Allen Drexel, John Howard, David Johnson, Liz Kennedy, Joan Nestle, Esther Newton, Tim Retzloff, Marc Stein, Roey Thorpe.


Card catalog description
Creating a Place For Ourselves offers an historical look at gay life in the United States before the gay liberation movement. Examining not only the large gay communities of New York, San Francisco, and Fire Island, but also the thriving gay populations in cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Washington, Birmingham, and Flint, the contributors assembled here demonstrate that gay communities are truly everywhere.


About the Author
Brett Beemyn teaches at Western Illinois University

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Creating a Place For Ourselves offers an historical look at gay life in the United States before the gay liberation movement. Examining not only the large gay communities of New York, San Francisco, and Fire Island, but also the thriving gay populations in cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Washington, Birmingham, and Flint, the contributors assembled here demonstrate that gay communities are truly everywhere.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This collection of scholarly essays sets itself the task of uncovering untold stories of gay American history. Selecting times and places from the 1920s to the '60s, from San Francisco to Fire Island, the 13 writers included here, all academics, argue that there is more to gay history than that centered around the Castro and Greenwich Village. Because of its unambitious scope and the banal interviewing techniques of the contributors, the collection does little more than make that single point. The highlight of the book is Esther Newton's piece on Fire Island, in which she makes the case that the gay resort off Long Island would not be what it is without the contributions of several prominent lesbians of the 1930s. Newton's article does what the other essays probably should have donecombine interesting facts and minutiae with a good narrative and compelling historical characters. The other 12 pieces gather a dozen or so incidental facts and provide particular historical reference material to make a walk through the neighborhood a bit more resonant. Thus the book is more a tool for those engaged in similar lines of study than a useful study in itself. Beemyn teaches African American history at the University of Iowa. (June)

Library Journal