Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Marvelous:

Rarely does a work of history both capture a particular moment in time and resonate so deeply with issues alive in contemporary public culture. As the country debates the possibility of gay marriage and the possible meanings of these unions, David Johnson's The Lavender Scare reminds us that homosexuality has at least one other time been conjured up as the nation's "bugaboo" during a period of political shifts and broad cultural change. In an account that is as riveting as it is sobering, Johnson shows how... more info

Illuminates a Dark History:

Cold war and McCarthyism are familiar topics from historians as America's fear of Communists and its reaction to this fear are interpreted from every side of the political spectrum. David K. Johnson does something different and, in its special way, far more important. The author, in The Lavender Scare, looks at how the cold war fears were used to hound gay men and women out of the federal service and how this continued unabated long after the Communist hysteria died down. It is fascinating, and horrifying,... more info

Great book!:

Johnson does a great job of reporting on the horrible way gays and lesbians were treated by the federal government during the McCarthy era. He puts the action of the government in the context. And, by recounting the personal stories of many of the federal workers who lost their livelihoods during these purges, Johnson adds depth and feeling to what otherwise could have been a dry academic work.

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