A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School with a PhD in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, straight feminist Linda Hirshman doubly wasn't having it when people questioned her title Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution
Calling it a "remarkable history" on The New Yorker blog, Richard Socarides says, "Over the course the past three years, the people and organizations who lobby for gay rights in Washington have mostly been wrong in their approach to the White House—which can be summarized as: these are our friends, we should trust them. As detailed in Hirshman’s book, it was only after more confrontational activists, symbolized by the likes of former Lieutenant Dan Choi and the new splinter group Get Equal (modelled at least in part on ACT UP), came in and caused as much controversy and consternation as possible that real progress was made."
Library Journal: “An astonishing work that seamlessly weaves together multiple stories into one authoritative volume. Highly recommended for political scientists, civil rights activists, and students of LGBT history.”
PW: “This exuberant history of arguably the final and most difficult civil rights struggle relates, in surprisingly upbeat fashion, the fight ‘to slowly bend the arc of history toward justice’ for gay men and women. . . . Undeniably inspiring.”
Todd Gitlin: “Linda Hirshman’s Victory is the chronicle that the brilliant, unremitting gay movement deserves. Deeply informed with human detail, political theory, and legal analysis alike, it moves fluidly out of the closet to the precincts . . . A genuine, sparkling tour de force.”
Slate: “Hirshman has done a great service in putting the question of morality in this movement on the table. Though important chapters are yet to be written, this book will help the world to see that gay is good-and getting better.”
Stick around for Urvashi Vaid's Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics
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