How to Do the History of Homosexuality

by David M. Halperin

In this long-awaited book, David M. Halperin revisits and refines the argument he put forward in his classic One Hundred Years of Homosexuality : that hetero- and homosexuality are not biologically constituted but are, instead, historically and culturally produced. How to Do the History of Homosexuality expands on this view, updates it, answers its critics, and makes greater allowance for continuities in the history of sexuality. Above all, Halperin offers a vigorous defense of the historicist approach to the construction of sexuality, an approach that sets a premium on the description of other societies in all their irreducible specificity and does not force them to fit our own conceptions of what sexuality is or ought to be.

Dealing both with male homosexuality and with lesbianism, this study imparts to the history of sexuality a renewed sense of adventure and daring. It recovers the radical design of Michel Foucault's epochal work, salvaging Foucault's insights from common misapprehensions and making them newly available to historians, so that they can once again provide a powerful impetus for innovation in the field. Far from having exhausted Foucault's revolutionary ideas, Halperin maintains that we have yet to come to terms with their startling implications. Exploring the broader significance of historicizing desire, Halperin questions the tendency among scholars to reduce the history of sexuality to a mere history of sexual classifications instead of a history of human subjectivity itself. Finally, in a theoretical tour de force , Halperin offers an altogether new strategy for approaching the history of homosexuality—one that can accommodate both ruptures and continuities, both identity and difference in sexual experiences across time and space.

Impassioned but judicious, controversial but deeply informed, How to Do the History of Homosexuality is a book rich in suggestive propositions as well as eye-opening details. It will prove to be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of sexuality.

Genres: History, Queer, Nonfiction, Queer Studies, LGBT, Academia, Philosophy

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2002

Reviews

[Rachel Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halperin revives the constructionalist viewpoint of (homo)sexuality through a geneological study of conscious same-sex erotic desire in Ancient Greece and other ancient traditions in order to denaturalize heterosexuality claims to universality and normality. Halperin challenges the idea that there is a singular phenomenon of homosexuality and shows how homonormativity organizes the social production of desire and self. Homosexuality is a modern construction, which doesn't mean that there was no same-sex object desire in the past, but that it was radically different from the way we perceive it now. I don't know how to distill everything I read into a concise post. My mind is blown. However, it is a bit repetitive because Halperin essentially put together a collection of his previously published essays, and there are certain chapters that repeat literally the same sentences from other chapters, so as a book, it doesn't flow as smoothly and would've benefitted from some more concision and editing.

[Dasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Halperin, through three essays, examines the historiographical problems raised by the study of homosexuality. Each of these essays responds to debates within the field. Therefore, much of the evidence comes from critiquing arguments of other historians’ works coupled with texts from Classical Greece. The first essay is a response to Jean Baudrillard’s Forget Foucault (1977) which argued that Foucault’s work lacked genius and might as well be forgotten. However, through a discursive analysis of the ancient Greek and Roman figures kinaidos/cinaedus and Greek erotic fables, Halperin demonstrates how Foucault’s theoretical framework helps to understand the construction of sexual identities without the use of modern notions of sexuality. Indeed, Foucault’s theory, not the theory of sexuality but rather the theory of resistance helped along by discursive analysis, helps us to inquire about the multiple relationships between sex and identity.

[Melmoth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm tempted to give this four not five stars only because it's so very repetitive, even for a collection of previously published essays. Otherwise, though, it's brilliant -- complicated, thoughtful, surprising, insightful, illuminating. Halperin incorporates classical studies, especially literary classical studies, and critical theory into his history of sexuality. His theoretical engagement, however (mostly with Foucault and Eve Sedgwick; otherwise he sticks more to historical and literary scholarship) never lead him away from the exceptional clarity and simplicity of his prose, which is an immense pleasure to read.

[Vahid · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "How to do the history of male homosexuality," David M. Halperin offers a critical assessment of the historiography of male homosexuality and proposes a new approach to studying the subject. Halperin begins by acknowledging the significant contributions of earlier scholars, but also notes that their work was often limited by anachronistic assumptions, narrow focus, and a lack of attention to the cultural, social, and political contexts in which homosexuality was experienced and understood.

Halperin argues that a more fruitful approach to the history of male homosexuality would involve a broader consideration of cultural and social contexts, and a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which same-sex desire was expressed and experienced in different historical periods. He proposes a methodological framework based on four key principles: cultural relativism, historicism, contingency, and reflexivity.

Cultural relativism requires historians to recognise that the meanings and experiences of homosexuality vary across time and place, and that contemporary categories and labels may not be appropriate for understanding historical phenomena. Historicist analysis involves situating historical events and practices within their specific historical contexts, rather than imposing contemporary perspectives and assumptions. Contingency refers to the recognition that historical events and practices are not predetermined, but are the product of complex and contingent processes of social, cultural, and political change. Reflexivity involves the recognition that historians are always situated within specific social, cultural, and political contexts, and that their work is inevitably shaped by their own perspectives, biases, and values.

Halperin concludes by emphasising the importance of a more nuanced, contextually-grounded approach to the history of male homosexuality. He argues that such an approach has the potential to shed new light on the diverse and complex ways in which same-sex desire has been experienced and understood throughout history.

[Yomna Saber · Rating 1 out of 5]

An incredibly unhelpful source! It doesn't even deserve one star.

[Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

An often repetitive quartet of essays outlining the need for a social constructionist treatment of the history of homosexuality. The last piece on the various components that constitute "modern" homosexuality merits the closest read.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-Foucaultian theorizing done with brio. An essential work, even if the real argument is packaged rather neatly in 10-15 pages.