5 books to read this LGBT+ History Month
5 books to read this LGBT+ History Month
Discover LGBTQIA+ histories through Cambridge University Press books that explore a range of issues and topics.
History is for everyone. Yet for years the experiences and true stories of certain minority groups and entire communities have been overlooked or gone untold. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus community is one such group.
LGBT+ History Month, celebrated in the UK each February, encourages us to learn about the past, highlight issues, and stand in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ people around the world.
As a global publisher and education organisation we believe we have a responsibility to amplify diverse perspectives and storytelling through our books, research and resources.
By delving into the past and telling the stories and lived experiences of both individual figures and groups of people, we can help bring LGBTQIA+ histories to a wider audience.
Below we recommend five books to read to learn about different LGBTQIA+ topics, rights and issues.
Female Husbands: A Trans History
by Jen Manion
Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were 'female husbands' and the women who loved them. Described as a ‘a treasure trove of historical insights’, this award-winning title by Jen Manion tells the riveting and personal stories of female husbands - people assigned female at birth who lived as men despite tremendous risk, danger, violence and threat of punishment. Female Husbands offers a dynamic, varied and complex history of the LGBTQ past.
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The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies
Edited by Siobhan B. Somerville
This Companion provides a guide to queer inquiry in literary and cultural studies. It represents areas such as transgender studies, indigenous studies, disability studies, queer of color critique, performance studies, and studies of digital culture.
This book traces the intellectual and political emergence of queer studies, addresses relevant critical debates in the field, provides an overview of queer approaches to genres, and explains how queer approaches have transformed understandings of key concepts in multiple fields.
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When States Come Out
by Phillip M. Ayoub
In the last two decades, the LGBTQIA+ movement has gained momentum that is arguably unprecedented in speed and suddenness when compared to other human rights movements. When States Come Out investigates the recent history of this transnational movement in Europe, focusing on the diffusion of the norms it champions and the overarching question of why, despite similar international pressures, the trajectories of socio-legal recognition for LGBTQIA+ minorities are so different across states.
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Unmaking Sex: The Gender Outlaws of Nineteenth-Century France
by Anne E. Linton
During the nineteenth century, words like 'intersex' and 'trans' had not yet been invented to describe individuals whose bodies, or senses of self, conflicted with binary sex. But that does not mean that such people did not exist.
In nineteenth-century France, case studies filled medical journals, high-profile trials captured headlines, and doctors staked their reputations on sex determinations only to have them later reversed by colleagues. While medical experts fought over what separated a man from a woman, novelists began to explore debates about binary sex and describe the experiences of gender-ambiguous characters.
Anne E. Linton discusses over 200 newly-uncovered case studies while offering fresh readings of literature by several famous writers of the period, as well as long-overlooked popular fiction. This landmark contribution to the history of sexuality is the first book to examine intersex in both medicine and literature, sensitively relating historical 'hermaphrodism' to contemporary intersex activism and scholarship.
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On the Offensive: Prejudice in Language Past and Present
By Karen Stollznow
I'm not a racist, but… You look good, for your age… She was asking for it… You're crazy… That's so gay… Have you ever wondered why certain language has the power to offend? This book sheds light on the derogatory phrases, insults, slurs, stereotypes, tropes and more that make up linguistic discrimination.
Each chapter addresses a different area of prejudice: race and ethnicity; gender identity; sexuality; religion; health and disability; physical appearance; and age. Drawing on hot button topics and real-life case studies, and delving into the history of offensive terms, a vivid picture of modern discrimination in language emerges. By identifying offensive language, both overt and hidden, past and present, we uncover vast amounts about our own attitudes, beliefs and values and reveal exactly how and why words can offend.
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Explore more recent, classic, and bestselling titles on LGBTQIA+ history, literature, and politics in Cambridge University Press Bookshop’s Pride Collection.
Built with Shorthand5 books to read this LGBT+ History Month
Discover LGBTQIA+ histories through Cambridge University Press books that explore a range of issues and topics.
