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George Chauncey

Born: 1954
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Chauncey was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1991 - 2006.

Biography: George Chauncey is the Samuel Knight Professor of History & American Studies and DGS of American Studies at Yale University. His field of interests include: U.S.: 20th century US social, cultural, and urban history; Lesbian & gay history; and History of gender & sexuality. In 2012 he was awarded the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities. He is co-director of the ''Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities'' and has served as the chair of the History Department, chair of LGBT Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies and Undergraduate Studies for American Studies. Along with the books listed below, Chauncey was also one of three editors of the book, ''Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past.''


Awards:
  • '''''Gay New York

Primary Literary Genre(s): Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: george.chauncey@yale.edu
Website: http://history.yale.edu/people/george-chauncey
George Chauncey on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=george+chauncey


Selected Titles

GAY NEW YORK :
ISBN: 1541699211 OCLC: 1048447557

BASIC Books, [Place of publication not identified], 2019.

Gay New York :
ISBN: 0465026214 OCLC: 29877871

Basic Books, New York : ©1994.

This groundbreaking work shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed only in the closet where gay men were isolated, invisible, and self-hating. Based on years of research and access to a rich trove of public and private documents, this is a look at a gay world that was not supposed to have existed. Focusing on New York City, the gay capital of the nation for nearly a century, Chauncey recreates the saloons, speakeasies, and cafeterias where gay men gathered, the intimate parties and immense drag balls where they celebrated, and the highly visible residential enclaves they built in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and Times Square. He offers new perspectives on the gay rights revolution of our time by showing that the oppression the gay and lesbian movement attacked in the 1960s was not an unchanging phenomenon--it had intensified in the 1920s and 1930s as a direct response to the visibility of the gay world in those years.--From publisher description.

Why Marriage :
ISBN: 9780786737727 OCLC: 693761894

Basic Books, New York : 2009.

Angry debate over gay marriage has divided the nation as no other issue since the Vietnam War. Why has marriage suddenly emerged as the most explosive issue in the gay struggle for equality? At times it seems to have come out of nowhere-but in fact it has.

Why marriage? :
ISBN: 0465009581 OCLC: 55746536

Basic Books, New York : ©2004.

"George Chauncey, one of our country's preeminent historians of gay life shows how the gay quest for marriage rights resulted from generations of change in marriage itself as well as decades of struggle over gay rights. In an account of the changing place of lesbians and gay men in American society, he recalls the pervasive discrimination faced by lesbians and gay men only a few decades ago, when the federal government fired thousands of gay employees and restaurants were shut down merely for serving them. He shows how the AIDS crisis, the boom in lesbian and gay parenting, and the continuing discrimination faced by gay families - in insurance, pensions, and child custody struggles - led to the campaign for the rights and protections of marriage." "Chauncey provides an analysis of the shifting attitudes of heterosexual Americans toward gay people, from the dramatic growth in acceptance to the many campaigns against gay rights that form the background to today's demand for a constitutional amendment on marriage. He also develops a comparison between the religious opposition to interracial marriage and desegregation just fifty years ago and the sources of opposition to same-sex marriage today. Why Marriage? is an essential book for gay and straight readers alike."--Jacket.

 

 

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