Encyclopedia of LGBT History in Amerca

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At a time when marriage equality is being championed and challenged, the publication of this resource on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identities, communities, cultures, and movements in the U.S. could not be more timely. A carefully constructed entry list includes more than 500 entry subjects. A wide spectrum of subject areas is covered: people politics culture and the arts academic disciplines and fields identities, communities, and cultures geographical locations law and public policy economics and labor sex, sexuality, intimacy, and relationships religion and spirituality language, symbols, signs, and concepts social life, issues, and institutions and social, cultural, and political processes. More than 400 years of historical developments are chronicled. A-Z entries range from slightly less than a page to eight pages in length and include cross-references and sometimes substantial bibliographies. A directory of LGBT libraries and archives throughout the U.S and Canada, a directory of contributors with their primary institutional affiliations and the entries they prepared, and a comprehensive index conclude the set. Arab Americans, Class and class oppression, Gentrification, Native Americans, Republican Party, Sexual revolutions, and Visual art are some of the subjects covered. Also here are biographical entries for more than 250 individuals, among them Josephine Baker, Hart Crane, David Hockney, Billie Jean King, Jerome Robbins, Billy Tipton, and Carl Van Vechten. Contributors have maintained a high level of scholarship throughout the set, and entries are characterized by evenhandedness. The encyclopedia succeeds in opening up for contemporary readers the complex history of LGBT life in the U.S. Garland's two-volume Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (2000) might appear to be closely comparable. Readers are reminded, however, that significant differences exist between these two works-Garland includes separate volumes on lesbian histories and cultures and gay histories and cultures, its focus is on history and culture, and its scope is international. Libraries that own the Garland set will want, therefore, to make room for Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in America in their reference collections. It an exceptional work that should be useful for academic and public libraries. General readers, students, researchers, and members of the LGBT communities alike will find this to be a most welcome resource.

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