The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQ Activism

by Adrian Brooks

The Right Side of History tells the 100-year history of queer activism in a series of revealing close-ups, first-person accounts, and intimate snapshots of LGBT pioneers and radicals. This diverse cast stretches from the Edwardian period to today.

Described by gay scholar Jonathan Katz as "willfully cacophonous, a chorus of voices untamed," The Right Side of History sets itself apart by starting with the turn-of-the-century bohemianism of Isadora Duncan and the 1924 establishment of the nation’s first gay group, the Society for Human Rights; it also includes gay activism of labor unions in the 1920s and 1930s; the 1950s civil rights movement; the 1960s anti-war protests; the sexual liberation movements of the 1970s; and more contemporary issues such as marriage equality.

The book shows how LGBT folk have always been in the forefront of progressive social evolution in the United States. It references heroes like Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Harvey Milk, and Edie Windsor. Equally, the book honors names that aren’t in history books, from participants in the Names Project, a national phenomenon memorializing 94,000 AIDS victims, to underground agitprop artists.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, LGBT, Queer, Politics, Biography, Historical

408 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2015

Reviews

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters are a better read than others, but all are important. This is a great place to start learning about the history that is never taught in our classrooms! I now have a pile of notes of things that I want to continue to research.

[Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting profiles; some high profile, some lesser known.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is basically an anthology of different important events, people, and topics from LGBTQ history, going as far back as the 1920s. (I think the earliest date was in the 20s, but not quote me on that.)

Like with any anthology type book, there were parts that I liked better than others, but I generally really enjoyed this book. I especially liked that the book included queer people of a variety of different races, not just white people. I also really liked the fact that there is a chapter on what it's like to be intersex, written by an intersex person. I do kind of wish that they had talked about asexuality a bit in this book though. Overall though, I think this is a really great book if you are looking to learn more about LGBTQ+ history. I enjoyed learned about different people who have played important roles in the fight for equality.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was excellent. I've done a lot of reading on LGBTQ history ever since my daughter came out to me several years ago. I learned a lot from this book, and read about contributions from people I previously hadn't heard of. Very informative read.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays and articles on US LGBT history from the beginning of the 20th century through to the early 2010s was generally interesting but quite uneven in terms of how engaging the writing was. As it aims to cover a lot of ground in not overly much space, there was a lot more breadth than depth.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of chapters about many different people who were involved with or influenced the LGBT movement in the US. Some chapters I found more interesting than others, some people I knew about and some I hadn’t heard of. Interesting read, though at times a bit dry for my liking.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first-person accounts were my favorite but the history was really useful and interesting too.

[Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of people's lives and even interviews dating to before and after Stonewall.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could go back and do this again I would read this during PRIDE month and would read one chapter a day for the 30 days of the month.

[Michael Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice history of a century of LGBTQ+ activism that covers major players from both before and after Stonewall, most of whom don’t get the spotlight they deserve.

Quick and informative, this contains plenty of great stories.

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. But for me it took a fascinating subject and made it boring. The book consists of a whole bunch of short chapters, each a short bio of some LBGT activist. But there is no narrative to connect them. The chapters are each written by a different person, so the book is choppy and better written in some places than others. Much of the writing is pedestrian and plodding, then this happened, then this happened, then this happened. There's only a little bit of broader context and because the individual bios are very short, there is very little depth or insight to them. Two thirds of the book is post Stonewall history, meaning in my lifetime, so not the part I most wanted to read about.

Title should be Lives of LGBT Leaders in Brief. Since it is in chronological order, the back third or so of the book is about people who are still alive. Some of these chapters were done as interview transcripts, definitely not my favorite format. Others were written by the person themselves. This tend to come out sounding like "then I started this organization and we the first to do this and that and then I started this other group and people flocked to hear me" and blah blah. Very hard not to sound bragging.

This book barely made it to three stars for me and if my rating were based only on the chapters on living people, it would have been two.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Right Side of History is an anthology of GLBTQI activism written by scholars, activists and writers. This gives the book a diverse and sometimes uneven tone in terms of its writing, though most chapters are compelling and urgent. My favorite part of the book is that LBGTQI history is viewed through a radical lens and shows us the many, many pioneers and advocates who were not just asking for equal rights but an end to the suppression and persecution of those outside the norm. I also loved that other struggles for freedom (gender, race, class, labor) were highlighted along with the oftentimes active participation that GLBTQI folks had in these movements (intersectionality-we are all multifaceted).

Thank you Edelweiss for allowing me to review this for an honest review.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one because there's so much LGBT history I don't know yet. On the other hand more than a few of the chapters were incredibly heartbreaking. I did find the multiple authors format a bit disjointed, some chapters were better-written than others, but I feel this is an important book and a necessary book. I'm proud to live in a country that legally recognizes same-sex marriage and look forward to the day that hetero marriages and same-sex marriages will both simply be referred to as 'marriages'.

[Koozebane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for the #paperbacksummer challenge.

While tangents are definitely followed, this collection is a fascinating, educational primer. I especially enjoyed the Josephine Baker article and editor Brooks' spirited dialogue with Representative Barney Frank.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated that this book was written clearly and accessibly. Sometimes I struggle with books that are written in overly academic terminology. I thought it gave a good overview of GLBT history while looking at individuals who helped shape it.

[Donavon Taveras · Rating 5 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: Being queer in America isn't new.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good introduction to the history of LGBTQIA. It only began my thirst for gender studies related books. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a snippet of gay pride history.

[Damien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very happy to have read this book. Unlike previous efforts, this is really what I was looking for. Excellent coverage of some major figures from the history of the struggle for LGBTQI acceptance and rights in the United States. I was familiar with almost none of the people introduced and am greatly enriched for knowing about them.

The primary author's writing is somewhat uneven, alternating haphazardly between colloquial and formal styles. Barring that, and some better editing of the interviews, I'd have given it 5 stars.