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The Routledge History of Queer America. Edited by Don Romesburg . New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 388. $220.00 (cloth); $53.95 (e-book).
In the introduction, historian Don Romesburg promises us that although the twenty-eight chapters he has compiled can stand on their own, a coverto-cover readthrough of The Routledge History of Queer America would "dazzle" us. That is nothing short of an understatement. This extraordinary chronological and thematic volume is sure to benefit students, scholars, and the wider public interested in the current state of LGBTQ history for years to come. The book sometimes feels like a reference book, helpful for those times when we need a crash course in the queer history of a particular period or subject. But perhaps its most enduring quality is how it also serves as a jumping-off point for future research projects. At times, the varied chapters invite the curious scholar to ask new questions, locate new suggested sources, and think differently about once-accepted truths.
The book is divided into three parts. Part I, entitled "Times," consists of eight chapters that rethink important eras in American history using a queer lens. This part begins with a chapter by Richard Godbeer on colonial North America beginning in the 1600s and concludes with a chapter by Margot Weiss on the rising neoliberal order in the United States since the 1970s. Each of the authors in this part had an enormous challenge ahead of them: Just...