Gay Warriors: A Documentary History from the Ancient World to the Present - Softcover

Burg, B. R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814798861 ISBN 13: 9780814798867

Publisher: NYU Press, 2001

Synopsis

In Ancient Greece and Rome, in Crusader campaigns and pirate adventures, same-sex romances were a common and condoned part of military culture. From the Peloponnesian War to the Gulf War, from Achelleus to Lawrence of Arabia gays and lesbians have played a crucial but often hidden role in military campaigns. But recent debates over the legality of gay service in the military and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy have obscured this rich aspect of military history. Richard Burg has recovered important documents and assembled an anthology on these often invisible gay and lesbian warriors.
Burg shows us that the Amazons of legend weren't just fictional. We learn about the richness and variety of their culture in documents from Plato, Seneca and Suetonius. From courts-martial proceedings we discover women warriors in seventeenth century England who passed as men in order to serve, and army officers whose underground culture fostered long-term romantic friendships.
There are also sections on the American Civil War, World War I and II, the contemporary U.S. military as well as sailors and pirates. This anthology will forever change the way we think about "gays in the military."

About this title

About the Author:

B. R. Burg is Professor of History at Arizona State University and the author of Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition.

From Library Journal:

Questions about whether or not gays should serve in the military are slightly off. The reality is that they do and always have. If proof is necessary, this insightful compilation of essays on gay and lesbian warriors throughout history is a good place to start. Accomplished historian Burg (Arizona State Univ.), who has proven himself to be a master documentarian in his previous works (e.g., Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition), has gathered important materials in the Western tradition from Homer to Clinton, making for a truly fascinating reading on this controversial subject. Court-martial proceedings and transcripts from Napoleon's army and the Royal Navy, for example, are quite evocative of their age. More frightening are those relating to the prosecution of the Knights Templars. Each of the nine chapters, written by prominent academics (e.g., John Boswell, Anne Gilmour-Bryson) and by Berg himself, covers a specific historical period (e.g., American Civil War, World Wars I and II) and includes enough contextual information to make it pertinent to academics and accessible to the lay reader. David Azzolina,. Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0814798861
• ISBN 13: 9780814798867
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 299