[Jesseboy]

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. 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, Homosexuality and Civilization is esential reading for queer history buffs and should be the required text for any future GLBT history course.
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Jesse G. Monteagudo

[Claude]

[Teiresias]

[Tamadori]

I also tend to be essentialist, but as a student in history, my belief hinders my research and my ability to construct an argument that withstands constructionist and post-structural criticism.
I find myself reading Crompton as more of an expert of Western and European sexualities and feel that his chapter on China lacks analysis. I don't believe that Crompton prefaced homosexuality in China enough. Perhaps the physical nature of same-sex relationships coincide with his narrative, but the sources he used to support his argument (though legitimate) are not examined enough. His statement of how "free" China was from Judeo-Christian moralism is too simple a blanket statement for why there are more recorded documents. The writings of Xie Zhaozhe and Shen Defu, although describe homoerotic acts, are nothing more than personal opinions on same sex love, which may or may not reflect on what was actually happening during their times. Yet Crompton doesn't address this or the economic aspect of homosexual acts as a majority of his sources report acts between a master and his subordinates. He also doesn't address the issue of gender as most Chinese literature portray the penetrant male as a woman. Despite this, I find his research a great secondary source to further discuss Chinese sexuality and gender.
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Univ. CA., San Diego

[JohnLinds]

I thought it a pity he had called the book and civilisation.

there might be a much more important thread to the contribution of homosexuality to civilisation which he doesn't touch upon, concentrating rather instead on what unpleasant people have done to us;

this thread would be the contribution to the abolition of slavery, the emergence of atheism, and the one I have just started finding out about, opposition to war :)

[nielsen522]