Gay Life and Culture: A World History

'Both political and critical' - New Statesman (Picture Book of the Week) 'The marvel of the book lies in its scope and sure-footed tone ... remarkably informative and sumptuously illustrated ... a wide-ranging, eye-opening volume' - Herald 'Authoritative, accessible, highly informative and blessedly jargon-free ... Weep and rejoice' - Simon Callow, Guardian 'A stunningly beautiful, touching and thought-provoking book' - Manchester Evening News

Now available in paperback, 'Gay Life and Culture' is a comprehensive, global account of gay history. It is spectacularly illustrated throughout and includes an extensive selection of images, many of them only recently recovered. From Theocritus’ verses to Queer as Folk, from the berdaches of North America to the boy-wives of Aboriginal Australia, this extraordinarily wideranging book illustrates both the commonality of love and lust, and the various ways in which such desires have been constructed through the ages.

Table of Contents

1. Gay and Lesbian History · 2. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome · 3. The Middle Ages · 4. Early Modern Europe, 1400–1700 · 5. Male Homosexuality in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution, 1680–1850 · 6. Lesbians and their Like in Early Modern Europe · 7. The Americas: From Colonial Times to the Twentieth Century · 8. The Homosexual Age, 1870–1940 · 9. Public Spheres and Gay Politics since the Second World War · 10. Loving Women in the Modern World · 11. Discovering Homosexuality: Cross-Cultural Comparison and the History of Sexuality · 12. Homosexuality in the Islamic World · 13. Desire and Same-Sex Intimacies in Asia · 14. The Gay World: 1980 to the Present