Gay Warriors: A Documentary History from the Ancient World to the Present
by B. R. Burg (Editor)
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Description
In Ancient Greece and Rome, in Crusader campaigns and pirate adventures, same-sex romances were a common and condoned part of military culture. From the Peloponnesian War to the Gulf War, from Achelleus to Lawrence of Arabia gays and lesbians have played a crucial but often hidden role in military campaigns. But recent debates over the legality of gay service in the military and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy have obscured this rich aspect of military history. Richard Burg has recovered show more important documents and assembled an anthology on these often invisible gay and lesbian warriors. Burg shows us that the Amazons of legend weren't just fictional. We learn about the richness and variety of their culture in documents from Plato, Seneca and Suetonius. From courts-martial proceedings we discover women warriors in seventeenth century England who passed as men in order to serve, and army officers whose underground culture fostered long-term romantic friendships. There are also sections on the American Civil War, World War I and II, the contemporary U.S. military as well as sailors and pirates. This anthology will forever change the way we think about "gays in the military." show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This book is a selection of texts from different places and periods collected together for a specific purpose: the debate in the US in the 1990s and 2000s about whether openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the armed services—all very interesting although you can see from the selections and framing how it's intimately tied to the purpose for which it was done.
A very thorough collection of textual sources. I was very interested to see the drastic change on attitudes to homosexuality in antiquity and the recent past. We may think ourselves enlightened, but seriously are not.
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Author Information
B. R. Burg is Professor of History at Arizona State University, USA.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, LGBTQ+, Sexuality and Gender Studies, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 355.0086 — Society, government, & culture Public administration & military science The Military - Land, Air & Sea / Warfare Culture Studies
- LCC
- UH630 .G39 — Military Science Other military services Other services
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 73
- Popularity
- 432,257
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
