Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present

Miller, Neil. "Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present". Advocate Books, revised edition, 2008.

Reclaiming Our History

Amos Lassen

I would be willing to guess that many members of the GLBT community do not know a lot about out history and we have a wonderful one. Neil Miller has produced an extremely readable book that gives us a lot of what we need to know. He begins our history with when the word homosexuality appeared in a German pamphlet in 1869. Miller has done his research well and in 31 chapters we get a feel for the history of our brothers, sisters and ourselves. Some of what he has to say may astound you as he includes anecdotes that many do not know. Some of what he gives us is trivia (but I love trivia) but most of what he has to say shows us how we got to be where we are today.
Miller's approach is like that of a typical history text and he cites abundantly. The book includes sidebars and writing excerpts and much of the book is devoted to gay history in the Western World. His updated edition fills in the gaps found in earlier editions. Here is a great introduction to who we are and where we have been. Miller balances his genders fairly and he gives is a wonderfully lucid history of the GLBT community.

As a young member of the GLBT community, I have much to learn. But having read this book, I definitely have better knowledge and perspective about gay and lesbian history. I especially like that Miller included excerpts from a diverse range of literary pieces and explained what references he used, stimulating the reader's (or at least my own) interest in other gay and lesbian books.

Neil Miller's done a great job of pulling together aspects of (western) gay history. I've read some of the sources for his lesbian chapters and he uses them intelligently to summarise main points. I assume he's does the same with the male stuff and material from other countries which was previously unfamiliar to me. His style is readable, succinct and balanced about how we look at the past from our current viewpoints.

One feature of the book which is particularly pleasing is his use of extracts from writings he's referred to in his central text. This adds a good variety to the voice of the work AND the extracts are long enough (two or more pages in length) to inspire further study.

I also like A) the pictures of famous historical figures, there's something particularly moving about them, (I never knew Willa Cather was so gorgeous!)

and B) the balance of genders and countries covered is better than average.

My advice - read it!

If you are interested in history, I highly suggest this book. Marginalized for eons, gay people are now an integral part of history. Relegated to the backburner, or whispered about in history sources, gay people have come forward with a great history. Within this collection, there are heartaches and triumphs, but always searching for the ideal of equality one day. Another good thing about this book is that it includes non-Western gay and lesbian history as well, yet another subject ignored by the "mainstream" history. An incredibly transfixing and fascinating book, I couldn't put it down, and read into the late hours of the evening.