The Martin Duberman Reader: The Essential Historical, Biographical, and Autobiographical Writings - Softcover

Duberman, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595586792 ISBN 13: 9781595586797

Publisher: The New Press, 2013

Synopsis

“A wonderful introduction to Duberman’s writing but is also a fitting tribute to a man who has devoted his life to promoting social change” (Publishers Weekly).
 
For the past fifty years, prize-winning historian Martin Duberman’s groundbreaking writings have established him as one of our preeminent public intellectuals. Founder of the first graduate program in LGBT studies in the country, he is perhaps best known for his biographies of Paul Robeson, Lincoln Kirstein, and Howard Zinn―works that have been hailed as “magnificent” (USA Today), “enthralling” (The Washington Post), “splendid” and “definitive” (Studs Terkel, Chicago Sun-Times), and “refreshing and inspiring” (The New York Times).
 
Duberman is also an equally gifted playwright and essayist, whose piercingly honest memoirs Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey and Midlife Queer have been called “witty and searingly candid” (Publishers Weekly), “wrenchingly eloquent” (Newsday), and “a moving chronicle” (The Nation). His writings have explored the shocking attempts by the medical establishment to “cure” homosexuality; Stonewall, before and after; the age of AIDS; the struggle for civil rights; the fight for economic and racial justice; and Duberman’s vision for reclaiming a radical queer past from the creeping centrism of the gay movement.
 
The Martin Duberman Reader assembles the core of Duberman’s most important writings, offering a wonderfully comprehensive overview of our lives and times―and giving us a crucial touchstone for a new generation of activists, scholars, and readers.
 
“A deeply moral and reflective man who has engaged the greatest struggles of our times with an unflinching nerve, a wise heart, and a brilliant intellect.” ―Jonathan Kozol

About this title

About the Author

Martin Duberman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he founded and for a decade directed the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. The author of more than twenty books―including Andrea Dworkin, Radical Acts, Waiting to Land, A Saving Remnant, Howard Zinn, Hold Tight Gently, and Paul Robeson: No One Can Silence Me (for young adults)―Duberman has won a Bancroft Prize and been a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

Duberman is a giant, too little known. Distinguished professor emeritus of history at the CUNY Graduate School, he was the founder and first director of the first Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (at CUNY). Author of more than 20 books, he is a recipient of the Bancroft Prize, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and biographer of Howard Zinn, Paul Robeson, and Lincoln Kirsten. He is a committed leftist who has never hesitated to criticize the mainstream gay and lesbian organizations with which his work and life have been intimately associated. This collection provides a useful contrast to popular columnist Dan Savage, the sort of writer who could not exist without Duberman. Selections include examples of the many types of writing Duberman is known for, except for his plays. From “The Northern Response to Slavery” to “Cuba” to “Pleasuring the Body: Reflections on Gay Male Culture,” Duberman’s writing is forceful and nuanced. And this is a valuable and most welcome volume. --Michael Autrey

Edition details

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1595586792
• ISBN 13: 9781595586797
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384