In A Queer History of the United States, historian and activist Michael Bronski tackles the ambitious (and honestly mind-blowing) task of tracing LGBTQ+ experiences and contributions in American history from pre-colonial times to the present. The book, published in 2011, shines light on how queer people shaped the nation even as they faced marginalization and persecution for much of that history.

Bronski, a professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Harvard, delivers a meticulously researched and enlightening read that helps fill a significant gap in chronicling American history through a queer lens. The book won the Lambda Literary award for LGBTQ+ nonfiction in 2011, and a follow-up for young adults, A Queer History of the United States for Young People, was published in 2019.

While filled with fascinating historical details, the book is very readable and accessible to non-academics thanks to Bronski's engaging writing style. He combines big-picture analysis with illuminating anecdotes and profiles. A Queer History of the United States ultimately makes the case that grappling with queer history is essential to fully understand America's story and the ongoing struggles to fulfill its founding promises of freedom and equality for all.

The Author: Michael Bronski

Michael Bronski is a pioneering scholar and activist who has played a key role in making LGBTQ+ studies a part of history books. He has authored over a dozen books on gay history and culture, including the groundbreaking 1984 work Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility.

Bronski's scholarly research explores the intersection of sexuality with race, class, and gender. Among the many compelling narratives are those of cross-dressing women soldiers in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, whose gender nonconformity disrupted traditional norms and revealed the complexities of identity long before modern labels existed. His other books include The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom (1998), Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps (2003), and others.

As a prolific writer and journalist, Bronski brings decades of expertise to uncovering queerness and its cultural history. He serves on the editorial board of Outhistory.org and has won numerous honors for his scholarship and activism, including the Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement.

What the Book Covers

A Queer History of the United States spans over 500 years of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history across 300 pages.

Bronski covers major events and eras, including colonial settler society, the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, the emergence of homosexual subcultures and development of celebrated same-sex desire in the early 20th century, the Cold War lavender scare, the gay liberation movement, the AIDS crisis, and the fight for marriage equality. He analyzes how understandings and experiences of sexuality and gender identity evolved against the backdrop of Puritanism, capitalism, racism, social reform movements, and more. Bronski explores how major events like World War II reshaped queer life as the United States grew in size, but also led to the tyrannical promotion of the heterosexual union as the “ideal relationship.”

Throughout, Bronski highlights influential queer figures, some prominent and others obscure, who made their mark on American culture, politics and society. These range from We'wha, a Lhamana (third gender) Zuni cultural ambassador in the 1880s, to poet Walt Whitman, blues singer Bessie Smith, civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. Bronski illustrates how queer community was present at every stage of American history, even as their identities were stigmatized, criminalized, or flat-out erased from the historical record.

Why Queer History Matters

A Queer History of the United States aims to restore LGBTQ+ contributions to their rightful place in the American historical narrative. For too long, queer lives were erased, distorted, or treated as marginal to our country’s culture.

By tracing queer presence from colonial America to the present, Bronski demonstrates how LGBTQ+ people have long been vital threads in the nation's social fabric even as they were forced to the margins. He connects queer history to major themes like struggles for personal freedom, gender equality, and self-determination that underscore the American story.

In our current moment of renewed backlash against queer people, Bronski's book remains as relevant and urgently needed as when it was published over a decade ago. Opponents of equality frequently appeal to a mythical, homogeneous "tradition" to justify discrimination and exclusion.

A Queer History of the United States helps shatter that myth by revealing the diversity of sexual and gender identities that have always existed in America. It provides much-needed representation for LGBTQ+ people seeking to understand their past and how it shaped the world they inhabit today.

Bronski's book is part of an exciting boom in recent decades of scholars, activists, and writers working to uncover and preserve the history of queer America. With its engaging, accessible overview of 500 years of American queer history, A Queer History of the United States is an enlightening read for anyone seeking a fuller, more accurate understanding of our community's history. ⬥