Outstanding Academic Book, 1998 (Choice) "Exceptionally rich history by almost any standard . Extraordinary . Loughery has added a powerful voice to the chorus making sure that speech triumphs over silence." (Warren Goldstein, The New York Times Book Review) "In this sweeping and rich history, John Loughery demonstrates how gay male communities and identities have been constantly refashioned in 20th-century America. Looking at gay men from the of World War I to the early 1990s, he shows that, fatuous stereotypes notwithstanding, there is not (and there has never been) any such animal as the gay man. Diverse and protean, gay men do have something of a shared past. Gay history, as Loughery chronicles it, is one of horrous persecution, brave battles, and hard-won victories . almost a century of gay history in one very readable volume.

" (Lillian Faderman, The Washington Post).