No Compromise: The Story of Harvey Milk

Aretha, David

ISBN 10: 1599351293 ISBN 13: 9781599351292

Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Pub, 2009

Synopsis

Chronicles the life and career of the California activist and politician, including his crusade for gay rights, his successful city supervisor campaign in 1977, and the legacy he left after his murder.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—Only after his assassination did America truly begin to understand Milk's impact on the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. From the opening of his Castro Street camera shop in 1973 to his death in 1978, Milk arguably did more for LGBT civil rights than any other individual in history. With simple and engaging prose, Aretha documents his life from his birth on Long Island, to his struggle for an identity, through his calling as a gay-rights activist and politician in San Francisco. Full-color and black-and-white photos are interspersed throughout, giving a sense of the time period. Annoyingly, the index is off one page on many of its entries. In 2009, Milk was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom Award and, in California, Harvey Milk Day has been established. Aretha's book and Kari Krakow's The Harvey Milk Story (Two Lives, 2002) are good introductions to this important figure.—Betty S. Evans, Missouri State University, Springfield
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Harvey Milk might not be thought of as a conventional subject for the Civil Rights Leaders series, but for the gay community, he was as much a groundbreaker as other subjects, including Roy Wilkins. Aretha, a solid and nuanced biographer, begins by telling readers, “People wanted to kill Harvey Milk.” Eventually, Dan White, a former city supervisor, does just that. But Aretha tells the story of the man as much as the activist. Milk carried the secret of his homosexuality from a young age; it took decades before he lived an openly gay lifestyle. His move to San Francisco in the early 1970s was a catalyst for change and fostered his eventual entrance into politics and the fight for gay rights. Details of local politics might be boring, but Aretha expertly weaves them into the larger cause. Throughout, interesting photos, many of Milk, grab attention, and Aretha is clear about the pluses and minuses of Milk's quixotic persona. Source notes, a bibliography, and related Web sites make this a strong book for research, but it's a good read, too. Grades 6-9. --Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Pub
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1599351293
• ISBN 13: 9781599351292
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128