Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Homosexuality and Civilization:

Based on the best recent scholarship and providing an overview of homosexuality from the Greeks to the end of the 18th century, this levelheaded, easy-to-read volume confirms the fact that homosexuality has had a long history (with periods of greater or less toleration). Crompton (English, Univ. of Nebraska) devotes three chapters to Greece and Rome, three to Christianity and the later medieval world, and three to the 18th century; single chapters treat ancient Judea, imperial China, Italy in the... more info

The essential text for lesbian and gay history.:

It took me a couple of weeks to read this book, but it was worth it. Professor Crompton's book is a comprehensive history of lesbians and gay men, in Europe and Asia, from Classical Greece to the Age of Napoleon (1789-1815). His book runs out of steam after 1810, and does not deal with Africa or the Americas, but within its limitations it is first rate. I enjoyed the illustrations, the brief biographies of "great gays in history," and the extensive bibliography (a guide for further reading). All in all,... more info

A major, major accomplishment:

This book is almost as astonishing as "The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality" -- which I consider to be very high praise indeed!

At first, I suspected that this was going to be just another review of all the stuff which every informed scholar is aware of. But I got a big surprise! This book is loaded with fascinating stuff I had never heard of before!

An example would be "The Sacred Band of Thebes." Most scholars are familiar with the name, and vaguely aware that there must have been an army of gay lovers... more info

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