Richie Chevat

Oh what a mess of a book. As other reviews have noted, there's a great deal of confusion around language in this book--it doesn't seem to know what to do with trans people in general, conflating trans-ness with sexuality in some parts and separating it with others (which theoretically I'd be fine with except for the inconsistency of it all--it feels more like a mistake than a political move.)

I think my biggest beef with it all (beyond yknow the nationalism of tying up queer history with US history and in particular with American myths about ourselves, which I think we should be questioning, but it also like makes sense given the title,) is the inconsistency overall in methodology with regards to whether or not we can call someone from the past "gay" or "trans." The authors (and I'm unclear how much of this is the original text itself or the way it's been adjusted for "young people" (more on that later)) lay out that we can't do this, which is of course a valid way of approaching queer history, but then in the actual chapters there's a lot of flopping back and forth on whether or not we can claim a history from these people. As an example, when talking about Emily Dickinson, the text reads "However she may have thought of herself, Emily Dickinson was certainly a woman who loved other women." It all feels very like trying to have your cake and eat it too, and while I understand the tension--to offer youth a history grounded in an awareness of the way that our ideas about sex and sexuality have changed over time--I don't think this is a good way of approaching it (and I think settling a history in individuals is also a bad way of going about it, but yknow here we are I guess.)

The other issue I have is who this book is aimed at. I assumed (and picked up the book based on the idea that) this book is aimed at young teens, maybe ages 12+. The book itself seems to indicate it's aimed at people in their late teens and early twenties--not in terms of how the language is written (I still thought it was aimed at 12 year olds reading it!) but with an actual phrasing that comes late in the text. And while I wouldn't discourage an 18 year old from reading this book (I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading anything!) I think you can probably read a much better queer history book for adults and get a better sense of the history.

Overall this was most disappointing because young people deserve better than this! I haven't yet found a good replacement (and I might have to write it >.>) but I wouldn't recommend this, especially as the first contact a person might have with queer history.… (more)

A Queer History of the United States for Young People, published in 2019 by Beacon Press, is an adaptation by Richie Chevat of Michael Bronski's 2011 Stonewall Book Award-winning work A Queer History of the United States. Not having read Bronski's original work, I'm uncertain if some of the flaws that exist in Chevat's adaptation are simply carried over from the source material, but I suspect that may be case in at least some instances — essentially, A Queer History of the United States for Young People has not been adapted or updated enough to reflect more recent developments in the conversations surrounding queer identities. Though to be fair, this is and will always be something of a moving target and difficult to successfully achieve.

For a work that rightfully emphasizes the importance of language and careful use of words and terminology, A Queer History of the United States for Young Pepole frustratingly does not always follow those professed ideals. As a result, the book is not nearly as inclusive as it could, needs, or intends to be. For example, some of the definitions used are incomplete, lacking in necessary nuance, or are quite simply wrong (e.g. "transgender" is not a term meaning a person who is attracted to another person of the same sex). A Queer History of the United States for Young People handles some queer identities fairly well — in particular those of gay men and lesbians — but it sometimes struggles with conveying a thorough understanding other marginalized groups, especially people who are gender-nonconforming, asexual, or have more fluid or liminal identities.

Even so, A Queer History of the United States for Young People, while at times infuriating, also has its good points and its intentions are certainly commendable. The writing is approachable and accessible, offering biographical sketches of more than thirty notable queer figures in United States history from the 1500s through the 2000s. I loved learning about these people and the historical context of their lives. I was previously aware of some of the figures chosen to be featured in the book while other I was encountering for the first time — people I look forward to learning even more about. While I wouldn't hand A Queer History of the United States for Young People to a reader without some caveats or the intention to incorporate it into a larger conversation, the work does have the potential to be a great starting place (an emphasis on starting place) for discovering how queer history is United States history.… (more)