Review: Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism, by Marc Stein

Abstract

Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism is an important and engaging contribution to the field of both public history and LGBTQ+ history. Authored by Marc Stein, a historian studying queer history for more than three decades, the book brings a personal perspective to queer history from the late 1980s through the 2010s. Stein uses his own essays, written throughout his career, to examine the issues faced by the queer community over time, the developments of the queer movement, and how those issues and developments affected historians doing queer history. Queer Public History also illustrates how community historians and academic historians have been intertwined since the beginning of the academic study of queer history. The relationship has allowed for a more activist approach to queer history than most other history disciplines.The book comprises thirty-three essays organized into eight sections centered on different themes. Those themes are as follows: “Queer Memories of the 1980s,” “Discipline, Punish, and Protest,” “Histories of Queer Activism,” “Queer Historical Interventions,” “Queer Immigration,” “Sex, Law, and the Supreme Court,” “Exhibiting Queer History,” and “Stonewall, Popularity, and Publicity.” The essays do not follow a linear progression in either date of publication or the timing of events discussed, which can cause the reader to feel ungrounded and lost in time. Paying attention to the section topics rather than sequential time will benefit the reader. While each section begins with a brief introduction and setting for the essays that follow, the book might have benefitted from a conclusion after the entries as well, to tie them all together and point to where the movement is now or where it is going. Because of the personal nature and experiences captured in the essays written by Stein, the reader is often taken on a highly specific journey and sometimes left wondering how that journey plays into the larger picture of the LGBTQ+ movement.Stein, especially early in his career, often published his work in non-academic sites, such as LGBTQ+ community newspapers, newsletters, blogs, or other nontraditional channels, as did many other queer historians. This was due to a long history of discrimmination towards the LGBTQ+ community, censorship of topics related to sexuality, and a percieved lack of interest. Therefore, queer historians often disseminated their work in publications that were directly tied to and aimed at the LGBTQ+ community. Stein’s essays illustrate, with great detail, how that affected himself and his career, as well as how this played out in the larger development of queer history as a discipline. In fact, it is the very personal nature of Stein’s experiences which, because of where they were published and the inviting way that they were written, gives this book a dual opportunity to examine how the “personal is political,” and in turn, how the political is personal.1 Queer Public History, in some ways, could be considered an autobiographic perspective of queer public history.Throughout the book Stein emphasizes the unique connection in queer history between the public and professionals and what public history has looked like in this field. Specifically because of the censorship in the past around LGBTQ+ topics and issues (much of which continues today), queer history has often been a grassroots effort within the LGBTQ+ community. Stein states this was because any work on the history of sexuality was not initially within the purview of history departments; rather it came out of psychology, which did not focus on history per se. Stein’s inclusion of studies he completed on professionals in queer history showed that queer history only came into existence in the 1970s and 80s and is still a relatively young field. Prior to this, the bulk of queer history was conducted by LGBTQ+ community historians, written for LGBTQ+ people, and published in nonacademic LGBTQ+ focused sources. Stein’s work in Queer Public History illustrates how queer history is always tied to public history because of its origins within the community. There is little distinction between academic and public history when it comes to queer history.Stein goes on to argue that there should be a sense of responsibility for advocacy by those historians who do write about queer history. The rise of queer historians happened alongside, and because of, many of the LGBTQ+ community’s efforts at gaining rights, respectability, and visibility. Stein notes the combined efforts and effects of LGBTQ+ advocacy in acadamia and in turn, the efforts and effects that academic advocacy had for the larger LGBTQ+ movement. Stein’s essays cover topics such as the lack of queer historians, the discrimination faced by those openly identifying as LGBTQ+ academics, or the discrimination faced by merely writing about topics related to the LGBTQ+ community. Therefore, Stein suggests that those queer historians who have managed to be hired in a tenured position should feel the need to continue the practice of advocacy in their own writings and work to better the continued homophobic environment found in academia. This advocacy on the part of queer historians is part of what makes LGBTQ+ history so compelling and public. Indeed, Stein notes that as queer history rose, so too has the public’s interest grown. The fact that Stein had a book deal prior to being permanently employed (he is now the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of history at San Francisco State University) meant that publishing houses recognized that, although there might have been little academic interest in queer history, there was certainly a public interest. It is the public nature of queer history that Stein highlights throughout the book and that makes for such a personal and engaging view of queer history and the LGBTQ+ movement.Overall, Queer Public History is a uniquely personal look into how public history has been formed in the LGBTQ+ community. The linkages between public and academic, between personal and political, and their ties to activism are laid out for the reader to explore in detail. Stein’s contribution is both to public history and to LGBTQ+ history and highlights how, in his case, they cannot be understood separately and are the better for it. His dedication to queer public history is clear from three decades of writing and is brought together in this book.