Used and New from Other Sellers
Used and New from Other Sellers
from $8.40
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
(Save 78%)
Other sellers (Hardcover)
-
All (13)
from
$8.40
-
New (5)
from
$18.95
-
Used (8)
from
$8.35
Note: Marketplace items are not eligible for any BN.com coupons and promotions
2003 Hard cover No dust jacket o/w absolutely brand new! ! -ships immediately Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 333 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Ships from: Chicago, IL
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
- •Canadian
- •International
- •Standard, 48 States
- •Standard (AK, HI)
- •Express, 48 States
- •Express (AK, HI)
2003 Hard cover Illustrated. Absolutely brand new (gift quality)! ! -ships immediately Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 333 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Ships from: Chicago, IL
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
- •Canadian
- •International
- •Standard, 48 States
- •Standard (AK, HI)
- •Express, 48 States
- •Express (AK, HI)
2003 Hard cover First edition. Illustrated. New in new dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 333 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Ships from: Delaware, OH
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
- •Canadian
- •International
- •Standard, 48 States
- •Standard (AK, HI)
- •Express, 48 States
- •Express (AK, HI)
Hardcover New 0520204158 New Condition ~~~ Right off the Shelf-BUY NOW & INCREASE IN KNOWLEDGE...
Ships from: Geneva, IL
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
- •Canadian
- •International
- •Standard, 48 States
- •Standard (AK, HI)
- •Express, 48 States
- •Express (AK, HI)
Brand new.
Ships from: acton, MA
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
More About This Textbook
Overview
Editorial Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Many people presume San Francisco's gay-friendly character began in the 1970s, but this engaging if sometimes facile social history uncovers sexually tolerant roots that go back much further. Boyd, a women's studies professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, shows that as far back as the Gold Rush of 1849, the city manifested a charmingly lax attitude toward enforcement of public morals-gaining a reputation as a "wide-open town"-and repeatedly resisted civic moralists who tried to enforce antivice laws. By the 1930s and the fall of Prohibition, the city hosted "publicly visible queer cultures and communities" with tourist-friendly nightclubs and bars. While Boyd relies on standard historical texts and sources such as police records for basic city history, the book is deeply informed and enlivened by 42 oral histories she gathered with lesbians and gay men who have lived in San Francisco since the 1930s. Five are partially reprinted here, and this terrific material allows Boyd to explore topics that have traditionally been ignored by gay historians: how drag shows helped stimulate the tourist economy of the city; how its African-American community engendered changes in the structures of the gay community; how a distinct lesbian public space evolved with the advent of such bars as Mona's in the 1930s and '40s; and how the city put itself at the forefront of transgender activism in the 1950s and '60s. Boyd has a keen ear for distinctive details, and it is this (rather than her major contention, that "the politics of everyday life were every bit as important as the politics of organized social movement activism") that drives this welcome study. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Library Journal
San Francisco and Seattle both began as frontier towns, and both are ports on the U.S. Pacific Coast, but they are as different as the Transamerica Tower and the Space Needle, and their respective queer communities have evolved along parallel but diverging paths. In Wide-Open Town, Boyd (women's studies, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) depicts a San Francisco where a bar-based gay culture emerged from roots in the all-male saloons and drag shows of the notorious Barbary Coast and Tenderloin, which was later mimicked by lesbians after the repeal of Prohibition. Faced with increasing civic harassment after World War II, both male and female communities politicized, mutated, and eventually collaborated in the homophile movement of the Fifties and Sixties. Boyd provides deeply detailed context by relating the broader American social and historical forces at work, as well as the personal perspective of oral histories. The only flaw in this excellent chronicle is that it ends in 1965, before the heyday of gay liberation in the Seventies and the rise and assassination of Harvey Milk in the city. Atkins (communication, Seattle Univ.; coauthor, Reporting with Understanding) begins his fine Gay Seattle in the 1890s, at roughly the same time as Boyd's book, and in outline the first part of his book is not dissimilar. Seattle has never had San Francisco's "wide-open" reputation, however, and the author's choice to begin with Washington State's 1893 sodomy law indicates a darker story. Atkins takes a more parochial approach, focusing on queer life in the city through the mid-1990s, mostly implying the larger social forces Boyd details explicitly, but his broader chronological coverage permits a vivid description of the devastation wrought by AIDS. Both books compare favorably with works such as George Chauncey's Gay New York and Charles Kaiser's The Gay Metropolis, and both are recommended for gay studies collections. But as San Francisco is virtually gay Mecca, Wide-Open Town is recommended for large public libraries as well, while Gay Seattle is optional outside the Pacific Northwest.-Richard J. Violette, Special Libs. Cataloguing, Victoria, B.C. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Nan Alamilla Boyd is Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Sonoma State University.
Table of Contents