Product Description

Since 1969, the word Stonewall has been synonymous with gay resistance to oppression. Yet remarkably, the full story of the Stonewall riots has never been told. Now historian Duberman profiles six early activists, whose lives intersected during the turbulent event that was to become the defining moment of the burgeoning liberation movement. Photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371282 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780452272064
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A police raid on the Stonewall, an unlicensed Greenwich Village gay bar, set off a series of riots in the summer of 1969 that mark the birth of the modern gay and lesbian political movement. Duberman ( Paul Robeson ) re-examines this event through the vibrant, intertwined portraits of six people--two lesbians, three gay men, one transvestite--whose lives converged at the Stonewall Rebellion and in the militant movement it spawned. Politically, his six subjects run the gamut from ex-priest Jim Fouratt--a leftist and Yippie cohort of Abbie Hoffman--to Foster Gunnison, who devoted his energies to moderate gay causes and later became a conservative. Yvonne Flowers, a black feminist, overcame her suspicion that the gay movement was not open to people of color, while transvestite Sylvia Rivers faced hostility from lesbians. Duberman, himself gay, exposes schisms in gay liberation that pitted gay men against lesbians, male chauvinists against feminists, whites against blacks. Photos. First serial to Grand Street; QPB selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Historian Duberman, author of Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey ( LJ 2/15/91), chronicles here the Stonewall riots that occurred in New York City during the summer of 1969. Involving gays and lesbians who fought back against a police raid at a Greenwich Village bar, these street battles marked a watershed event in gay and lesbian rights in this country. Duberman's work is a combination of biography and history that is primarily viewed through the words of six participants (four men and two women) who were either at the Stonewall riots or involved in the gay and lesbian politics of the time. It is often a powerful and compelling narrative that shows how an oppressed minority arrived at a historic moment and changed forever the way they would view themselves and how others would view them. Recommended for all public libraries and gay and lesbian special collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/93.
- Richard Drezen, Merrill Lynch Lib., New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An engrossing--and long-overdue--look at one of the seminal events in the history of gay activism: the Stonewall Riots of June 27-July 2, 1969. By filtering the genesis and events of the riots through the lives of four gay men and two lesbians who were participants, Duberman (Cures, 1991, etc.; History/CUNY) lends immediacy and emotional impact to his narrative. In addition, the diversity of the protagonists' backgrounds--black, Hispanic, WASP, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Christian Scientist--underscores the commonality of the homosexual experience and of gay reactions to legalized intolerance of homosexuality. Of special relevance is Duberman's concise overview of the period in general and of the frequently collaborative but occasionally oppositional agendas that characterized the pre-Stonewall homophile organizations and that laid the groundwork for the love/hate relationship marking many of today's gay-liberation groups. The six featured here range from Foster Gunnison, Jr., a meticulous, buttoned-up Ph.D., to Sylvia Rivera, an in-your-face transvestite and Times Square hustler. Duberman points out that the uprising that erupted outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village was a spontaneous expression of gay frustration, as well as a refusal to put up with the police harassment that was a commonplace of gay life during the 1960's. It's uncertain who first lashed back at police manhandling when the bar was raided. The Stonewall itself- -grubby, Mafia-run, overpriced--was an unlikely candidate for historic landmark status. Duberman argues that the management, by paying off police officials, had been warned about earlier raids but that this time, federal agents--aware of the police bribes and informed that the liquor served at the bar was bootlegged or hijacked--conducted the raid suddenly and unexpectedly. And so it was that police corruption indirectly contributed to the emergence of gay liberation. An important and absorbing addition to gay studies. (B&w photos--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Interesting study and fascinating people
As a straight female raised in the bible belt, my level of education about the Gay Rights movement was at best minimal. We learned about Women's Rights and Civil Rights in school, but never Gay Rights. Anyway, I became very interested in Gay Literature earlier this year, and was often confused by references to Stonewall and other historical events/places/people.

Mr. Duberman's book, which, to be honest, I picked because it was the only book of its type available at the bookstore here in my small Texas town, was interesting and a fast, entertaining read. I especially liked the way Duberman followed a small group of people over a long period of time. Learning about an historical event through the eyes of people who were actually there gave me a far better understanding than a bland, general history might have.

Interesting, But Misnamed And Oddly Lacking
For those unfamiliar with the word, "Stonewall" was a gay bar of the 1960s Greenwich Village district in New York. Like most gay bars of its place and time, it was mafia operated and kept its doors open through repeated pay-offs to a corrupt police beaurocracy; even so, in an era when gays and lesbians were considered intrinsically criminal it was subject to repeated raids and its staff and customers were often arrested.

In the early morning hours of 28 June 1969, police officers conducted such a raid--but instead of encountering a fearful, easily managed crowd, they ran afoul of a handful of people who had had enough of police intimidation and harassment. The resulting confrontation spilled into the street and quickly exploded into a full-blow riot that continued on and off for several days.

Although it received little coverage by mainstream media, the incident was quickly recognized by many in the gay and lesbian community as a turning point, and the gay rights movement suddenly became activistic in tone. That activism would shape the drive toward decriminalization, an increasing openess, and a determination to obtain equal rights that continues to direct gay and lesbian issues to this day.

Given its central role in a controversial social movement, the Stonewall riots are more than worthy of a detailed examination by a major historian, and certainly Martin Duberman is all of that, a highly respected academian and noted author who is particularly noted for his documentation of the gay experience in 20th Century America. But in truth, you will find out very little about the riots from his 1993 book STONEWALL. In a 282 page text, neither Stonewall nor the riots are mentioned until page 181--and Dubberman's account of the riots is all of twenty pages long.

So what, then, is this book actually about? STONEWALL attempts to place the riots in historical context, and as such it is actually about the earlier gay and lesbian organizations, movememts, and leaders who by accident or design helped lead the gay community to critical mass. In an effort to render a sprawling subject more manageable, Dubberman focuses on six individuals: Yvonne Flowers, Jim Fouratt, Foster Gunnison Jr., Karla Kay, Sylvia Ray Rivera, and Craig Rodwell. In each instance Dubberman presents us with a general biography of each, interweaving one with another, showing how each person drifted into the movement--and then uses the overall narrative to create a portrait of gays and lesbians in the pre-Stonewall era and the impact the Stonewall riots had on their individual lives.

It is an interesting concept, but there is a significant problem. While all their stories are interesting, several of the people involved were neither part of the pre-Stonewall movement nor a factor in the riot, and the result is less of the hard fact that we want to see in favor of an excessively "political correct" array of characters whose stories never really seem to add up to any cohesive statement. While it will be interesting to any one who wishes to read in depth on the subject, this is not the text on the 20th Century gay rights movement with which to begin or end your reading.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Excellently Researched- A Must Read!
This tells the story of the struggle of gays in America and the great Stonewall riots of the 60s that made Conservative America realize the existence of gay people and how they would no longer be treated as second-class citizens. (A story largely ignored and continued to be ignored by the mainstream press) and the boiling point. Stonewall is when gays strucks back and fought force with force. Violence with violence. No longer would they tolerate such abuses of their basic rights in supposedly "freedom-loving" America. Well-Researched, well-written, a great book and a must read for all!