Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940

This book is a study of gay society in New York from 1890-1940. It's a wonderful piece of social history, completely destroying the myth that there was no gay life before Stonewall. It also pursues one of my favourite themes, exploring the different ways that men express their homosexuality: "straight" men who would occasionally go out and play, gays who tried to pass, pansies who were outrageous. So much of modern gay consciousness and politics is focussed on "we are all alike", it's refreshing to see a book that reminds us that we aren't.

The book itself is pretty interesting reading for something that's essentially a history book. Much more readable than Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (R.I.P., Boswell). The research Chauncey did is incredible, teasing out lots of information from local papers, diaries, interviews, and crime reports from the police and from private morality enforcement committees. My friend at University of Chicago says that Chauncey's a great professor, too. Look for his next book; it will pick up where this left off.