Jonathan Ned KatzCríticas

Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A., A Documentary and Pioneering Collection of Turbulent Chronicles - A Startling New Perspective on the Nation's Past

Eve Adams (born Chawa Zloczower, 1891-1943) experienced the rawest of discrimination on many levels. She was a Jew in Gentile territories, a radical in mostly conservative settings, and a lesbian in places and times that were not sympathetic to her desires. She even served jail time for writing a book entitled "Lesbian Love" and allegedly propositioning an undercover policewoman. For these "crimes" she was deported from the United States (where she had immigrated in 1912). She ultimately ended up in Auschwitz, where she perished at the age of 52.

Jonathan Ned Katz’s biography of Adams is somewhat redundant and padded, as books about obscure figures often are, yet he has an important story to tell. Included also is the full text of Adams's rare book "Lesbian Love,” a charming set of character sketches that are tame by modern standards.

Not just for specialists, this brief biography is definitely worth reading.

I received an electronic pre-publication copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

The scholarship is somewhat less than awesome, and he's terribly long-winded about his argument, but the real value of Katz's book is in the collection of 19th century primary source material (letters, news articles, testimony, etc.) on/from/between people he terms "men-loving men" (as homosexuality as the sociological construct we understand today didn't exist yet). I kind of wish the book were more about 19th century male/male eros and less about linguistics issues (i.e. the freedom to name an unspeakable act), but that lack of freedom to do so makes finding primary sources near impossible...so yeah, catch-22. Definitely a fascinating look at 19th century m/m love.

* The poetry tag is included due to over half the book focusing on Walt Whitman, his work, his letters, and his sex life. (Walt's archives are huge.)

Great insight on how men-loving men struggled for wording to properly express their desires and emotions in a more positive light than society would allow at the time. Katz was careful to stress the difference of what was acceptable in society then and now when it came to the affection between men and/or their behavior. It served as a helpful reminder of what these men were saying in their original context rather than how it may sound in respect to today's thinking. I very much appreciated his care of adding a disclaimer to any speculations offered when interpreting letters and other such written works of the subjects of his study.

I've often heard it claimed that we can't use terms like homosexuality to describe people before that label existed and it wasn't until I read this book that I fully understood why. The stories and letters contained in this book are extraordinary. For anyone interested in the history of sexuality, this is a must-read.

I feel I will always owe Ned Katz an enormous debt of gratitude for this early classic compendium on gay and lesbian history in the USA. First, he is both sincere and thorough in his feminism and determination to give lesbians equal representation and thoughtful analysis. Second, he might be said to have been the first to open my eyes to the full range of psychic terrors, traumas and horrors that constituted gay life in the USA from the 1940s to late 1960s. The testimonies of young men beaten within an inch of their lives with no recourse at law, education, family, or police; the lesbians dragged off to shock therapy and institutionalization; and, more so, the less dramatic but pervasive stories of silencing, violence, shaming, threat, marginalization, and multiple, insidious assault. We have not yet even come close to understanding the traumas and desolations of that period, nor the more fundamental forces that caused homophobia to erupt in a putatively democratic society that had just borne witness--however much at a remove--to the Holocaust. Thanks, Ned--you opened my young eyes to what my immediate gay ancestors had endured.

Reviewed here.

This book had been one of my "to read" lists for a couple of years now but as it wasn't readily available in the libraries round here, I wasn't sure if I would ever have a chance to read it. But then I searched for second-hand copies online and bought it.

I must admit that the title misled me, to an extent. Yes, Katz is writing about sex between men before homosexuality but his study has much more specific focus than I originally thought - nineteenth-century America. Unsurprisingly, Walt Whitman features quite heavily in the book, for which reason we get something on John Addington Symonds and even a little on Edward Carpenter.

A fascinating book that I've been reading leisurely in bed before going to sleep.

titillating