Lesbian Studies Books / Lesbian History - Lesbian Non-Fiction Books - RainbowSauce for The Best in Lesbian Reading : USA : UK : Canada

These books go very well with the general lesbian studies books and the lesbian culture books in profiling the history of lesbian cultures, identity and lesbian community history as well as profiles of lesbians from modern history.

These books are available from the USA, UK and Canada - click through any flag for further reviews or purchase information. You can now also click through any author's name to view all their book titles!

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	All Books by Rose Collis - Author of : Portraits To The Wall : Historic Lesbian Lives Unveiled Paperback Reissue edition (September 1994) Cassell Academic; ISBN: 0304328510 "Lesbian Studies/History; Focusing on British and European women, this is an accessible study of lesbian history. Each chapter documents and examines a woman's life and work, or the nature of a particular partnership. Some of the women featured are famous, such as Greta Garbo, Ethel Smyth, Eve Balfour and Queen Anne, while some of the others' lives have not been documented to date. In considering each person or pair the following questions are asked: were the women "infits" or "outfits" in terms of their sexuality?; how were their relationships conducted?; how much did social status/background dictate the extent of their openness or compromise?; what sort of role models where they in their day to other women?; and what legacy did they create, if any, to the status/visibility of the contemporary lesbian?. A wide range of women of different eras, nationalities, ages and social backgrounds are discussed." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Rose Collis - Author of : A Trouser-Wearing Character : The Life and Times of Nancy Spain Paperback (December 1999) Cassell Academic; ISBN: 0304706248 "Lesbian Autobiography/Biography; Lesbian Studies/History; When Nancy Spain died in a plane crash in 1964, aged 47, with her partner, Joan Werner Laurie, she was at the height of a brilliant media career. A famous all-media celebrity of the time, she was a seasoned journalist and writer - with over 10 camp and frothy crime novels to her name. She later moved into radio and TV, quickly becoming an established panelist on "Juke Box Jury" and "What's My Line?" as well as a knowledgeable and lively contributor to "Woman's Hour". In this revealing biography, Rose Collis rediscovers Nancy Spain's public and private life and therein creates an account of an exceptional woman." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Lillian Faderman - Author of : Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers : A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America Paperback Reprint edition (June 1992) Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140171223 "Lesbian Studies/History; An account of lesbian life in the twentieth century traces the evolution of lesbian identity, discussing the establishment of lesbian subcultures in each decade, examines how feminism and gay liberation have de-stigmatized lesbianism, and more." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Lillian Faderman and Leila Rupp - Authors of : Scotch Verdict Paperback - 320 pages 0 edition (May 15, 1994) Columbia Univ Pr; ISBN: 0231084439 "Lesbian Studies/History; The true-life story of two 19th-century Scottish school mistresses accused of having a lesbian affair--the historical basis of Lillian Hellman's famous play, The Children's Hour" Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Lillian Faderman - Author of : To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History Paperback - 480 pages (June 8, 2000) Houghton Mifflin Co; ISBN: 0618056971 *~~ Featured Book Review ~~* "From the author of the acclaimed Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, a landmark work of lesbian history that both "sets the record straight (or unstraight)" for all Americans and "provides a usable past" for lesbians "This is a book about how millions of American women became what they are now: full citizens, educated, and capable of earning a decent living for themselves. But it departs from other such histories because it focuses on how certain late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century women whose lives can be described as 'lesbian' were in the forefront of the battle to procure the rights and privileges that large numbers of Americans enjoy today." A groundbreaking reappraisal of those women known by history but whose histories are incomplete, To Believe in Women examines how their lesbianism may in fact have facilitated their accomplishments. Lillian Faderman, twice winner of the Lambda Award, persuasively argues that even before a "lesbian identity" was defined, many early female leaders had what would now be called lesbian relationships, free from the constraints of traditional heterosexual arrangements that might otherwise have impeded their pursuits in education, politics, and culture. A book of impeccable research and compelling readability, To Believe in Women will be a source of enlightenment for all, and for many a singular source of pride" Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Lillian Faderman - Author of : Surpassing the Love of Men : Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present Paperback - 496 pages Reissue edition (August 2001) Quill; ISBN: 0688133304 "Lesbian Studies/History; A classic of its kind, this fascinating cultural history draws on everything from private correspondence to pornography to explore five hundred years of friendship and love between women. Surpassing the Love of Men throws a new light on shifting theories of female sexuality and the changing status of women over the centuries." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Antonia Fraser - Author of : The Warrior Queens Paperback - 442 pages (3 October, 2002) Phoenix mass market p/bk; ISBN: 1842126369 "Lesbian Studies/Women's History; Antonia Fraser's "Warrior Queens" are those women who have both ruled and led in war. They include Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Isabella of Spain, the Rani of Jhansi, and the formidable Queen Jinga of Angola. With Boadicea as the definitive example, her female champions from other ages and civilizations make a fascinating and awesome assembly. Yet if Boadicea's apocryphal chariot has ensured her place in history, what are the myths that surround the others? And how different are the democratically elected if less regal warrior queens of our time: Indira Ghandi and Golda Meir? This book is much more than a biographical selection. It examines how Antonia Fraser's heroines have held and wrested the reins of power from their (consistently male) adversaries." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Emily Hamer - Author of : Britannia's Glory : A History of Twentieth-Century Lesbians Paperback Reissue edition (December 1995) Cassell Academic; ISBN: 0304329673 "Lesbian Studies/History; A comprehensive political history of lesbianism in the 20th century, this work looks at: lesbians and the suffrage movement; lesbians and the First World War; Radclyffe Hall and "The Well of Loneliness" trial; lesbian life in the cosmopolitan 1930s; lesbian participation in the Second World War effort; lesbians in the 1950s; Esme Langley and "Arena Three"; and lesbian politics since the 1970s. In her discussion of the agenda and framework of lesbian political activism since 1900, Hamer documents the emergence of lesbian, feminist (and gay) political identities and sheds light on the complex relationships and interaction between these groups." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Elizabeth Kennedy - Author of : Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold : The History of a Lesbian Community Paperback - 434 pages Reprint edition (March 1994) Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140235507 "Lesbian Studies/History; "Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold" offers an account of the growth of the lesbian community in Buffalo, New York from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. Drawing on oral histories collected from 45 women, it provides a comprehensive history of a working-class lesbian community. These poignant and complex stories provide a new look at black and white working-class lesbians as powerful agents of historical change. Their creativity and resilience under oppressive circumstances constructed a better life for all lesbians and expanded possibilities for all women." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Joan Nestle - Author of : A Restricted Country Paperback - 200 pages 2nd edition (June 2003) Cleis Press ISBN: 157344152X "Lesbian Studies/History; Joan Nestle is one of the most powerful voices of the contemporary lesbian and gay movement. This collection of stories from her life, political essays and sex fiction offer a complex view of sex, gender and class." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Joan Nestle - Author of : A Fragile Union : New & Selected Writings Paperback - 230 pages (September 1998) Cleis Pr; ISBN: 157344040X "Lesbian Studies/History; A leading lesbian feminist activist and historian and founder of the Lesbian History Archives in New York presents a collection of intimate essays and narratives about lesbian sexuality, butch-femme relationships, sex writing, the importance of preserving pre-Stonewall gay men, and other topics." Click to buy this book in USA, UK:
	All Books by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Lisa Auanger - Authors of : Among Women : From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World Hardcover - 424 pages (March 2001) Univ of Texas Pr; ISBN: 0292771134 "Lesbian Studies/History; Women's and men's worlds were largely separate in ancient Mediterranean societies, and, in consequence, many women¹s deepest personal relationships were with other women. Yet relatively little scholarly or popular attention has focused on women¹s relationships in antiquity, in contrast to recent interest in the relationships between men in ancient Greece and Rome. The essays in this book seek to close this gap by exploring a wide variety of textual and archaeological evidence for women¹s homosocial and homoerotic relationships from prehistoric Greece to fifth-century CE Egypt. Drawing on developments in feminist theory, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory, as well as traditional textual and art historical methods, the contributors to this volume examine representations of women¹s lives with other women, their friendships, and sexual subjectivity. They present new interpretations of the evidence offered by the literary works of Sappho, Ovid, and Lucian; Bronze Age frescoes and Greek vase painting, funerary reliefs, and other artistic representations; and Egyptian legal documents." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Becki L. Ross - Author of : The House That Jill Built : A Lesbian Nation in Formation Paperback - 384 pages (June 1995) Univ of Toronto Pr; ISBN: 0802074790 "Lesbian Studies/History; What began as a doctoral thesis in sociology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education became this history of LOOT, or the Lesbian Organization of Toronto, which sought to subvert the history of lesbian invisibility and persecution by claiming a collective, empowering public presence during the mid- to late 1970s. Archival sources and interviews provide a view of the complex developments in community, identity, and visionary politics in the feminist, left, and gay-liberation movements of the time." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Claudia Schoppmann - Author of : Days of Masquerade Hardcover - 176 pages 0 edition (May 15, 1996) Columbia Univ Pr; ISBN: 0231102208 "Lesbian Studies/History; This pathbreaking book is the first in-depth look at lesbians during the Third Reich available in English. Through a series of interviews, Days of Masquerade presents the life stories of ten lesbians who lived through the Nazi era. The women Claudia Schoppmann interviewed and others whose lives she reconstructs took very different paths under the Nazi regime. Some emerged from explicitly political backgrounds and became opponents of the Reich, some left Germany for political or personal reasons, some found ways to survive through networks of friendship and mutual assistance, and one even managed to cooperate with the regime. For students of lesbian and gay studies, women's studies, and modern German history, Schoppmann's work opens up new roads for further research and is a bold reminder of the forgotten victims of the Third Reich." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:
	All Books by Arlene Stein - Editor of : Sex and Sensibility : Stories of a Lesbian Generation Paperback - 270 pages (April 1997) University of California Press; ISBN: 0520206746 "Lesbian Studies/History; Arlene Stein interviewed 41 lesbian-identified women for this study of the origins of 1970s lesbian feminism and its legacy in queer culture today. Sex and Sensibility looks at the fluidity or the fixedness of sexual orientations, the individual or community beginnings of such identities, and the effects of geography on lesbian communities. This provocative book, Stein's second, is an important contribution to the discussion of what we mean when we call ourselves lesbian." Click to buy this book in USA, Canada, UK:

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Lesbian Studies - Lesbian History Books