An intelligent and thought-provoking though somewhat limited addition to the historical record of the gay liberation...
Downs (History/Connecticut Coll.; Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction, 2012, etc.) aims to dispel the misconception that gay liberation in the 1970s was primarily focused on sexual freedom.
In this slim though well-documented history, the author provides vivid accounts of noteworthy movements and issues that surfaced during this decade, each playing a vital role in advancing meaningful change within the gay community. He examines how the rise of gay churches and gay bookstores helped to foster a sense of community; how the establishment and expanding influence of gay newspapers (with particular attention devoted to the Toronto-based publication The Body Politic) heightened awareness; and how certain reforms alleviated the abuse and sexual mistreatment of gay prisoners. The author also explores how the emergence of the “macho clone” redefined gay male culture and identity, in many ways disrupting the progress. “The popularity of this image erased women and people of color from the gay community,” writes the author. While Downs successfully asserts a grounded claim that gay life in the 1970s was by no means only about sex, it can be argued that for many it was also about sex, in profoundly more complex and defining ways than he allows here. “There is little question that sex shaped, informed, and mattered to gay people throughout this decade, but it was not defining, as the received narrative has it,” he writes. In his earnest endeavor to sustain his argument, the author gives negligible attention to this facet of the history, leaving his overall conclusion unbalanced. The book would have also benefited from a more expansive perspective, relating how these various efforts specifically helped to shape progress leading up to the present. By applying such a narrow lens to just the ’70s, the broader impact of this decade within the history of the movement feels underserved.
An intelligent and thought-provoking though somewhat limited addition to the historical record of the gay liberation movement.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-465-03270-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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