Homosexuality and Civilization :

Rating:
Summary: Homosexuality and Civilization
Review: Based on the best recent scholarship and providing an overview of homosexuality from the Greeks to the end of the 18th century, this levelheaded, easy-to-read volume confirms the fact that homosexuality has had a long history (with periods of greater or less toleration). Crompton (English, Univ. of Nebraska) devotes three chapters to Greece and Rome, three to Christianity and the later medieval world, and three to the 18th century; single chapters treat ancient Judea, imperial China, Italy in the Renaissance, Spain and the Inquisition, France from Calvin to Louis XIV, England from the Reformation to William III, and pre-Mejei Japan. This is primarily an intellectual history of attitudes about homosexuality with emphasis on individual homosexuals, both female and male. Crompton assumes that the reader will be conscious of the general course of history and includes only brief introductory passages to set the stage. He bases much of the book on standard translations of primary sources, many of them retranslated from the Victorian versions, in which same-sex relations were often ignored or "cleaned up." There is an extensive bibliography and the sources are cited in endnotes. The result is the best historical overview of the topic that this reviewer has read.

Rating:
Summary: GAY HISTORY RECLAIMED: THE KEY SURVEY
Review: Crompton's "Homosexuality and Civilization" seems destined to become the definitive one-volume history of same-sex relations--and it comes at a critical period. Essential to the suppression of gay people in the West was the denial that they contributed positively to history; that history came very close to being effaced altogether. Just as the first gay historians after Stonewall began to reclaim that history, gay French philosopher Michel Foucault mischievously denied that homosexuality existed at all before the term was coined in the 1890s. This academic fashion caused many to refuse to consider fascinating new same-sex testimony from the past just as it appeared--a skepticism heteros would never dream of applying to their own sexual history. Crompton is post-theory, post-faction: instead of denying gay men had a history, he says, just read the first-person accounts from different times and places and respect what they plainly say. He does just that in this elegant, readable journey through Christian, Islamic, and Asian same-sex history.

But Crompton also makes two landmark contributions well beyond the requirements of survey. First, he fingers the one person who actually invented Western homophobia: Philo Judeus. Jewish philosopher in Alexandria and contemporary of Christ, this titanic figure is at least as important to history as St. Augustine, and like Augustine, presents both light and dark sides. On the good side, he created the template for Christianity. Responding to the mounting fashion for monotheism in the ancient world, and to the deep respect Romans had for the Jewish equation of law with divinity, Philo sought to reinvent Judaism as a Gentile-friendly universal religion released from its tribal particularity. He was blocked in this effort by purists in Jerusalem who insisted on circumcision (meaning, for the convert, adult circumcision without anaesthetic) and obeisance to the Temple, which on high holy days turned into the largest assembly-line slaughterhouse in the world. Both requirements were deal-breakers for pagans. But Philo's student St. Paul successfully applied this template to the new cult of Christianity. On the negative side, it was Philo who first interpreted the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah as punishing homosexuality, which no one else, including Jesus, thought it was. His interpretation became, to this day, the key rationale for the persecution of gay people in Christendom. Thanks to Crompton, now we know who did it.

Crompton's second great contribution is to extend same-sex history, virtually for the first time, to China and Japan. Gay men often ask, what kind of society would result if there were no taboos, if men could love whomever they want? For two thousand years, until the 19th century, this answer could be found in China and Japan. As long as a man did his dynastic duty siring children, he could do anything else he wanted sexually. The result was a broad middle area of opportunistic bisexuality flanked by strong purist traditions of hetero and homo sex. All three had their own philosophy and literature, and Crompton quotes extensively from an enormous, unsuppressed gay literature which the West has yet to sample.

This book is the single finest one-volume survey of same-sex history on the market and deserves a wide audience.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent work and exemplarly scholarship
Review: Crompton's work, "Homosexuality and Civilization," is a monumental piece of history and contrary to the popular bromide of Boswell and Foucault, represents real, cogent scholarship. Crompton offers an even-handed and exhaustive review of the history of homosexuality from early civilization, to the close of the Enlightenment. I strongly suggest for readers interested in gay and lesbian history, who are searching for an introductory overview thereof, this title. It offers a far more realistic and defensible interpretation of homosexuality throughout history than one is likely to find in the confused and fallacious works of other prominent workers (e.g., the aforementioned Boswell and Foucault).

As other reviewers have noted, the book is extremely impressive from a stylistic standpoint, and as per their usual quality of work, the Belknap Press has turned out a marvelous volume. Crompton deserves the highest praise for his book.

Rating:
Summary: Civilized Scholarship
Review: Homosexuality and Civilization is a monumental yet compendious book. The fruit of decades of scholarship in primary documents, it is written in Louis Crompton's customary, classy style: easy, open, colloquial. Some of you may know his excellent book on Shaw. Especially interesting is this book's focus on various cultures' laws concerning homosexuality because it enables Crompton to get around the claims of certain cultures that homosexuality barely exists within them. Belknap Press has done itself great credit in providing enriching (and expensive) art work illustrations yet keeping the book's cost very reasonable.

Rating:
Summary: Although lacking many famous male-lovers.
Review: I must admit this is a very readable and recommendable book not only for gay and lesbian people but also for heterosexual people.
However to my surprise, the book is attached too much importance to the Western countries.
As for the history of same-sex loves, Christendom did not have great importance.
And I wonder why Mr. Crompton didn't refer to the Arabian, Persian, Indian and Korean same-sex loves.
In addition, I found many misspellings of proper nouns ( e.g. " Cataline " in page 82, of course it must be " Catilina ", and " Sei Shoganon " in page 413, of course it must be " Sei Shonagon ", etc. etc.


Rating:
Summary: The essential text for lesbian and gay history.
Review: It took me a couple of weeks to read this book, but it was worth it. Professor Crompton's book is a comprehensive history of lesbians and gay men, in Europe and Asia, from Classical Greece to the Age of Napoleon (1789-1815). His book runs out of steam after 1810, and does not deal with Africa or the Americas, but within its limitations it is first rate. I enjoyed the illustrations, the brief biographies of "great gays in history," and the extensive bibliography (a guide for further reading). All in all, "Homosexuality and Civilization" is esential reading for queer history buffs and should be the required text for any future GLBT history course.

Rating:
Summary: What a Great Book!
Review: Louis Crompton has produced in HOMOSEXUALITY & CIVILZATION a definitive book about same sex relationships from the beginning of civilization to the present. Not only is this 624 page compendium thoroughly documented with copious footnotes, bibliography, valuable indices on both written content and illustrations, it is presented in an elegant format by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press - all of which become s additive but secondary to the brilliance of Crompton enlightened writing style. No dry treatise this, though the scholarly ethic is always in evidence. Crompton relates his reportage and commentary in a fluid, highly readable fashion, a fact that makes this book read like the great historical novel.

Although others have written excellent 'justifications for homosexuality' on various platforms that usually seem to border on glorified gossip for a hungry audience of fellow travelers, Crompton relies on myriad quotaions from historical documents, poetry, stories, myths, histories, and intact evidence of teachings of the great minds from twenty-four centuries. He wisely begins with Early Greece then Classical Greece where love between males was glorified and honored, to Rome where same sex relationships were an integral part of the Roman warriors' lives. He quotes liberally from the poetry of Sappho, Homer, Plato, Ovid, Cicero etc and integrates the lyrical with the writings of Caesar and Alexander and other emperors and leaders.

Then comes the change. With the introduction of 'Christianity which was born when Rome was stood at the peak of its power and Greek culture still dominated the Mediterranean world.' The single most destructive concept of homosexuality as an abomination and a crime worthy of (and receiving) the death penalty is the brief story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though Crompton demonstrates that the inception of the hate campaign resulting from this Judaic story may have originated from an incorrect translation from the Bible, this Levitical evidence was the reference used to torture, imprison, slaughter, and burn at the stake countless men and women who were even suspect of same sex love or who engaged in the act of sodomy. The Story marches forward like a pestilence through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with the Inquisition only an example of the fury that the Church used to destroy sodomites, considered to be the cause of all misfortune in battles, disease, and civic unrest because of God's fury at peoples who allowed this crime.

Make no mistake; Crompton does not march against the Church as the source of all evil in telling the story of the homosexuals' plight. He writes lyrically of the wonders of the Renaissance and the Papal patronage of the great master works of art in the history of Western Civilization. He quietly continues to demonstrate that these holy works were from the minds and hands of homosexual artists such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Botticelli, and Donatello. He talks about the Popes, the kings, the emperors, the famous men and women of the political and religious and artistic world who were known to be homosexual.

Crompton does not exclude Eastern Civilization in his massive book. As a matter of fact his beautifully written accounts of Chinese and later, of Japanese histories provide a welcome breath of dignity to the ongoing slaughter and genocide of the homosexuals in Western Civilization. Because the Judaic Bible was not part of the culture of these civilizations, there was no rule or law against same sex relationships. Influenced by the Oriental mind being at one with nature include being at one with all beings in nature, and while it was accepted that unions between man and woman were necessary for the proliferation of their civilizations, more often than not the purer 'love and passion' stories were those between men. The Samurai are shown to be deeply involved with male lovers who were the driving force for valour on the battlefield.

Once the atrocities of the Inquisition began to fade and the Age of Enlightenment and Reason altered man's view of the law as at least equal to the dogma of both the Papal authority and the Protestant Reformation, Crompton writes of the gradual decriminalization of homosexuality, examining the differences between the timelines of France, Spain, the Netherlands, England and the United States and leaves his thorough investigation in the Supreme Court ruling of June 26, 2003. "Our story concludes here, at the moment when executions finally cease in Europe. Looking back over twenty-four centuries, what pattern can we see in the dozen societies we have examined? Most striking, certainly, is the divide between those that called themselves Christian and those that flourished before or independently of Christianiy. In the first we find laws and preachings which promoted hatred, contempt, and death; in the second, varying attitudes, all of them (barring Islam, which, like Christianity, inherited the lethal tradition of the Hebrew scriptures) to a radical degree more tolerant."

This book is not a light read; reading one chapter a day is about all we can fully absorb and relate to our own knowledge of history. But Crompton is both knowledgeable and a thoughtful writer. His book is generously illustrated with examples of paintings, sculptures, images of the people under discussion, and extant documents. One could comfortably use this book as a text for the general study of Civilization. The fact that Louis Crompton has added the parallel history of homosexuality to his intellectual tracing is a welcome addition to scholars and to all readers who long for an understanding of a topic that has rarely been more relevant than it is today. This is a brilliant book and an extraordinary achievement. Highly Recomended!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliantly Researched, Illustrated and Written History
Review: Louis Crompton has produced in HOMOSEXUALITY & CIVILZATION a definitive book about same sex relationships from the beginning of civilization to the present. Not only is this 624 page compendium thoroughly documented with copious footnotes, bibliography, valuable indices on both written content and illustrations, it is presented in an elegant format by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press - all of which become s additive but secondary to the brilliance of Crompton enlightened writing style. No dry treatise this, though the scholarly ethic is always in evidence. Crompton relates his reportage and commentary in a fluid, highly readable fashion, a fact that makes this book read like the great historical novel.

Although others have written excellent 'justifications for homosexuality' on various platforms that usually seem to border on glorified gossip for a hungry audience of fellow travelers, Crompton relies on myriad quotaions from historical documents, poetry, stories, myths, histories, and intact evidence of teachings of the great minds from twenty-four centuries. He wisely begins with Early Greece then Classical Greece where love between males was glorified and honored, to Rome where same sex relationships were an integral part of the Roman warriors' lives. He quotes liberally from the poetry of Sappho, Homer, Plato, Ovid, Cicero etc and integrates the lyrical with the writings of Caesar and Alexander and other emperors and leaders.

Then comes the change. With the introduction of 'Christianity which was born when Rome was stood at the peak of its power and Greek culture still dominated the Mediterranean world.' The single most destructive concept of homosexuality as an abomination and a crime worthy of (and receiving) the death penalty is the brief story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though Crompton demonstrates that the inception of the hate campaign resulting from this Judaic story may have originated from an incorrect translation from the Bible, this Levitical evidence was the reference used to torture, imprison, slaughter, and burn at the stake countless men and women who were even suspect of same sex love or who engaged in the act of sodomy. The Story marches forward like a pestilence through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with the Inquisition only an example of the fury that the Church used to destroy sodomites, considered to be the cause of all misfortune in battles, disease, and civic unrest because of God's fury at peoples who allowed this crime.

Make no mistake; Crompton does not march against the Church as the source of all evil in telling the story of the homosexuals' plight. He writes lyrically of the wonders of the Renaissance and the Papal patronage of the great master works of art in the history of Western Civilization. He quietly continues to demonstrate that these holy works were from the minds and hands of homosexual artists such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Botticelli, and Donatello. He talks about the Popes, the kings, the emperors, the famous men and women of the political and religious and artistic world who were known to be homosexual.

Crompton does not exclude Eastern Civilization in his massive book. As a matter of fact his beautifully written accounts of Chinese and later, of Japanese histories provide a welcome breath of dignity to the ongoing slaughter and genocide of the homosexuals in Western Civilization. Because the Judaic Bible was not part of the culture of these civilizations, there was no rule or law against same sex relationships. Influenced by the Oriental mind being at one with nature include being at one with all beings in nature, and while it was accepted that unions between man and woman were necessary for the proliferation of their civilizations, more often than not the purer 'love and passion' stories were those between men. The Samurai are shown to be deeply involved with male lovers who were the driving force for valour on the battlefield.

Once the atrocities of the Inquisition began to fade and the Age of Enlightenment and Reason altered man's view of the law as at least equal to the dogma of both the Papal authority and the Protestant Reformation, Crompton writes of the gradual decriminalization of homosexuality, examining the differences between the timelines of France, Spain, the Netherlands, England and the United States and leaves his thorough investigation in the Supreme Court ruling of June 26, 2003. "Our story concludes here, at the moment when executions finally cease in Europe. Looking back over twenty-four centuries, what pattern can we see in the dozen societies we have examined? Most striking, certainly, is the divide between those that called themselves Christian and those that flourished before or independently of Christianiy. In the first we find laws and preachings which promoted hatred, contempt, and death; in the second, varying attitudes, all of them (barring Islam, which, like Christianity, inherited the lethal tradition of the Hebrew scriptures) to a radical degree more tolerant."

This book is not a light read; reading one chapter a day is about all we can fully absorb and relate to our own knowledge of history. But Crompton is both knowledgeable and a thoughtful writer. His book is generously illustrated with examples of paintings, sculptures, images of the people under discussion, and extant documents. One could comfortably use this book as a text for the general study of Civilization. The fact that Louis Crompton has added the parallel history of homosexuality to his intellectual tracing is a welcome addition to scholars and to all readers who long for an understanding of a topic that has rarely been more relevant than it is today. This is a brilliant book and an extraordinary achievement. Highly Recomended!!!

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Humanistic Survery
Review: Louis Crompton has written a magisterial, eloquent, and exhaustive history of gay and lesbian history in his 2003 book, "Homosexuality and Civilization." The book traces the history of attitudes towards gay men and women from antiquity to the Enlightenment (its only shortcoming was the lack of anything past the nineteenth century). This book is a real toud d'force, covering literature, philosophy, history, and artefacts throughout the ages. Crompton is at complete odds with Boswell's two tomes on homosexuality, clearly laying the blame for most homophobia on the doorsteps of Christianity. Not until Augustine of Hippo, Clement of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom does homosexuality become a perversion that is meeted with some harsh, even lethal, opposition -- all because of the Story of Sodom and Gommorah, which ironically has nothing to do with homosexuality, but which the early Church Fathers decided was the lynchpin of God's wrath toward the unrighteous homosexual -- indeed, not just the homosexual, but any society that countenanced it. The Catholic Inquisition was matched only by the Protestant Reformation in its zeal to liquidate any form of same-sex love by a misreading of the Sodom story, and by a single verse from Leviticus -- a Code which most Christians reject or ignore categorically, yet from a single verse comes some of the most perverse reprisals against the gay community.

Crompton's book is more like a textbook of all things homosexual prior to the 20th century than it is a thesis about a particular worldview of homosexuality. Homosexuals in almost all societies have enjoyed some of the most insightful and keen minds, beginning with ancient Greece and persisting throughout the modern era. But for all the accomplishments of gay men and women, the gay person has always been at the forefront of progroms to purge society of God's ire. Gays have always been blamed for anything that has gone wrong in almost every society -- except in ancient Greece, where same sex love facilitated military heroism. Retracing same-sex love from the "Iliad" through Plutarch, one sees a tolerant attitude convert to antipathy in the writings of the Christian Church Fathers -- almost always citing Leviticus 20:13, and starting with the adoption of the Christian faith as the national religion of medieval Rome in A.D. 390.

There have been many an outstanding book on the topic of homosexuality, including John Boswell's two tomes, Dover's "Greek Homosexuality," and David Greenberg's "The Construction of Homosexuality." But none of these other works compares in eloqution, spectrum, or detail of Crompton's excellent survey. This is a book for every gay person's and historican's library; an exellent reference point for many of the people who have borne reproach for same-sex affinity; and a world view largely of Christianity's hostility. For all its wealth of information and eloquence, this book is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A major, major accomplishment
Review: This book is almost as astonishing as "The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality" -- which I consider to be very high praise indeed!

At first, I suspected that this was going to be just another review of all the stuff which every informed scholar is aware of. But I got a big surprise! This book is loaded with fascinating stuff I had never heard of before!

An example would be "The Sacred Band of Thebes." Most scholars are familiar with the name, and vaguely aware that there must have been an army of gay lovers behind that name. But HERE you will find out when they were organized, why, their major victories over tyranny, and their final, tragic defeat. And you will also find the name of a closeted British group which is restoring the monuments which mark their grave.

But that's just an example! This is a book for happy learning! The author has put a lifetime of effort into this book, and he has achieved a book for the ages. Matchless history and analysis.

Highest possible recommendation!!!