Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a lively and engaging biography of the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, a man fiercely committed to protecting all minorities

“This elegantly written and well-researched book recovers the Jewishness that has too often been erased or glossed over in the mythologizing of a gay icon.”—Helene Meyers, Tablet

Harvey Milk—eloquent, charismatic, and a smart-aleck—was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, but he had not served even a full year when he was shot by a homophobic fellow supervisor. Milk’s assassination at the age of forty-eight made him the most famous gay man in modern history; twenty years later Time magazine included him on its list of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century.

Before finding his calling as a politician, however, Milk variously tried being a schoolteacher, a securities analyst on Wall Street, a supporter of Barry Goldwater, a Broadway theater assistant, a bead-wearing hippie, the operator of a camera store, and an organizer of the local business community in San Francisco. He rejected Judaism as a religion, but he was deeply influenced by the cultural values of his Jewish upbringing and his understanding of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. His early influences and his many personal and professional experiences finally came together when he decided to run for elective office as the forceful champion of gays, racial minorities, women, working people, the disabled, and senior citizens. In his last five years, he focused all of his tremendous energy on becoming a successful public figure with a distinct political voice.
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Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a lively and engaging biography of the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, a man fiercely committed to protecting all minorities

“This elegantly written and well-researched book recovers the Jewishness that has too often been erased or glossed over in the mythologizing of a gay icon.”—Helene Meyers, Tablet

Harvey Milk—eloquent, charismatic, and a smart-aleck—was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, but he had not served even a full year when he was shot by a homophobic fellow supervisor. Milk’s assassination at the age of forty-eight made him the most famous gay man in modern history; twenty years later Time magazine included him on its list of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century.

Before finding his calling as a politician, however, Milk variously tried being a schoolteacher, a securities analyst on Wall Street, a supporter of Barry Goldwater, a Broadway theater assistant, a bead-wearing hippie, the operator of a camera store, and an organizer of the local business community in San Francisco. He rejected Judaism as a religion, but he was deeply influenced by the cultural values of his Jewish upbringing and his understanding of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. His early influences and his many personal and professional experiences finally came together when he decided to run for elective office as the forceful champion of gays, racial minorities, women, working people, the disabled, and senior citizens. In his last five years, he focused all of his tremendous energy on becoming a successful public figure with a distinct political voice.
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Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

by Lillian Faderman
Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death

by Lillian Faderman

Hardcover

$26.00 
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Overview

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a lively and engaging biography of the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, a man fiercely committed to protecting all minorities

“This elegantly written and well-researched book recovers the Jewishness that has too often been erased or glossed over in the mythologizing of a gay icon.”—Helene Meyers, Tablet

Harvey Milk—eloquent, charismatic, and a smart-aleck—was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, but he had not served even a full year when he was shot by a homophobic fellow supervisor. Milk’s assassination at the age of forty-eight made him the most famous gay man in modern history; twenty years later Time magazine included him on its list of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century.

Before finding his calling as a politician, however, Milk variously tried being a schoolteacher, a securities analyst on Wall Street, a supporter of Barry Goldwater, a Broadway theater assistant, a bead-wearing hippie, the operator of a camera store, and an organizer of the local business community in San Francisco. He rejected Judaism as a religion, but he was deeply influenced by the cultural values of his Jewish upbringing and his understanding of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. His early influences and his many personal and professional experiences finally came together when he decided to run for elective office as the forceful champion of gays, racial minorities, women, working people, the disabled, and senior citizens. In his last five years, he focused all of his tremendous energy on becoming a successful public figure with a distinct political voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300222616
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 05/22/2018
Series: Jewish Lives
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lillian Faderman is a distinguished scholar of LGBT and ethnic history and literature. She is the author of The Gay Revolution

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 A Nice Jewish Boy

1 The Milchs 9

2 Deep, Dark Secrets 20

3 Drifting 34

4 Will-o'-the-Wisps 52

Part 2 "They Call Me the Mayor of Castro Street"

5 "Who Is This Mr. Yoyo?" 69

6 Learning to Put Up the Chairs 85

7 Strike Two 98

8 Milk vs. the Machine 111

Part 3 A Serious Political Animal

9 Victory! 133

10 Supervisor Milk 153

11 Leading 168

12 Dark Clouds Gathering 186

Part 4 Martyr

13 "If a bullet should enter my brain …" 205

14 Aftermath 217

Epilogue: Harvey Milk's Legacy 229

Acknowledgments 237

Notes 241

Index 277

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