Just as homosexuality has a history we need to understand, so does hostility towards homosexuality – homophobia. This book explores that murky history in a scholarly but highly readable fashion, and in doing so illuminates a tangled story. We are living a paradox: homosexuality has never been more accepted in Western societies, but the virulence of the fear and loathing against it remains a nasty minority sport. The book helps us to understand how this has occurred, but also inspires the continuing resistance. It documents the horrors, but also encourages hope that homophobia can be overcome, by human agency. – Jeffrey Weeks, Professor, London South Bank University, author of ‘The World We Have Won’.
[an] important anthology…the volume is a considerable achievement. Its accessibility and the general clarity of the writing it contains is also a welcome feature. – Australian Historical Studies, 40, 2009