Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality in the United States, 1895-1917

by Terence Kissack

Overview

By investigating public records, journals, and books published between 1895 and 1917, Terence Kissack expands the scope of the history of LGBT politics in the United States. The anarchists Kissack examines—such as Emma Goldman, Benjamin Tucker, and Alexander Berkman—defended the right of individuals to pursue same-sex relations, challenging both the sometimes conservative beliefs of their fellow anarchists as well as those outside the movement—police, clergy, and medical authorities—who condemned LGBT people.

In his book, Kissack examines the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the life and work of Walt Whitman, periodicals such as Tucker's Liberty and Leonard Abbott's The Free Comrade, and the frank treatment of homosexual relations in Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, By defending the right to enter into same sex partnerships, free from social and governmental restraints, the anarchists posed a challenge to society still not met today.

Terence Kissack is a former Executive Director of San Francisco’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society; he currently serves on the board of the Society. His writings have appeared in Radical History Review and Journal of the History of Sexuality.  

  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904859116
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	06/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Terence Kissack is the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society. His published work, which has appeared in the Radical History Review and The Journal of the History of Sexuality, examines the intersection of the politics of the left and the politics of homosexuality. He earned his PhD in history at the City Univerity of New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Anarchism and the Politics of Homosexuality     1
"The Right to Complete Liberty of Action": Anarchism, Sexuality, and American Culture     13
The Wilde Ones: Oscar Wilde and Anarchist Sexual Politics     43
Free Comrades: Whitman and the Shifting Grounds of the Politics of Homosexuality     69
"Love's Dungeon Flower": Prison and the Politics of Homosexuality     97
"'Urnings,' 'Lesbians,' and other strange topics": Sexology and the Politics of Homosexuality     127
Anarchist Sexual Politics in the Post-World War I Period     153
Conclusion: Anarchism, Stonewall, and the Transformation of the Politics of Homosexuality     181
Notes     189
Bibliography     214
Index     230