Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present

This is a great history and very readable. I whipped through most of the book. When it got to the era where I was affected by the history it too me longer to read merely because of the emotions and memories it brought back. Great read.

I first read sections of this book when it was fairly recent, in the late 1990s, but at the time, I didn't have the time for the rest, so I put it on my TBR list. I didn't think it would take me twenty years to get there (and over five years with the book waiting on my shelves).

Reading the final section on the progress of gay rights in the 1980s and 1990s it feels there's been significant change since then, but with the increasing influence of right-wing politics maybe some of that ground is disappearing, not for the first time in history. I like this book for including excerpts from books and other materials to illustrate the topics discussed.

There's a lot to like about this book...its a very detailed history of gays and lesbians and it does try to tell the histories of both men and women equally, which not all histories of this sort do. There's interesting information here and a wealth of suggested books one could read after this if one was interested. My biggest problem with the book is the massive amount of typos it contains...often at least one every few pages. One more proof reading pass would have increased my enjoyment quite a bit.

Revised and Updated edition.
hardback book with dust-jacket