James Kirchick

There's a lot in here I did not know, but a lot that I did. I did know most of the civil rights players (Kameny, Matlovitch, etc) and some of the evil ones (Cohn), but I did not know of the "secret" part of the secret city. Most surprising, I think, it just how involved the "gay machine" was with Iran-Contra. This book claims that pretty much everyone but Ollie North was gay. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but it's intriguing.

One thing that really comes through is just how destructive secrecy is. Suicide, career ending discovery, police abuse, all kinds of things. But the most disturbing is just how much self loathing and evil doing results, Roy Cohn being the classic, but hardly only, example.

The book covers FDR to Clinton, after which I guess it's no longer necessary to be secret. The book jumps about a bit, which can be a little disorienting. (Didn't I read this already? kind of thing). But very much worth the read.

It's quite long and I kept wondering how much longer it could go, but it (the ebook) ends at 61% complete. The rest is hundreds of pages of acknowledgments and end notes. The book is about 750 pages out of a total of over 1200.

Very worth the read.… (plus d'informations)

Secret City by James Kirchick is a very well researched work that brings to light the many contributions to our country that GLBTQ+ people have made, all while having to hide or defend who they were.

As extensive as this work is, and it covers a lot of ground, we should be aware that there are many more people who also toiled from the closet and will likely never be known, not to mention all those who gave up on public service since they weren't supposed to be included as full citizens.

Having said that, this work goes a long way toward recovering not simply a chapter of US history but a consistent thread that runs throughout all of the chapters.

This book comes very close to being unwieldy, yet I'm not sure, as it is, it should have been broken into two volumes. What I would love to see is a future revision which is broken into two or three volumes and goes into a little more depth on some of the individual stories. I don't want that comment to be misunderstood, I was impressed by just how much depth is included. Considering the time frame, FDR through Clinton, there is a lot of detail and depth. There is no doubt more information Kirchick uncovered that didn't make the cut here. That along with perhaps a few new discoveries would make for an even more detailed history but in several volumes.

As a work in the recovery of a marginalized portion of the governmental workforce this book is great. What I think is just as important is the message that young GLBTQ+ readers can takeaway, namely that they are valuable and they can choose public service if they so desire.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)

Once the world’s bastion of liberal, democratic values, Europe is now having to confront demons it thought it had laid to rest. The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. In riveting dispatches from this unfolding tragedy, James Kirchick shows us the shallow disingenuousness of the leaders who pushed for “Brexit;” examines how a vast migrant wave is exacerbating tensions between Europeans and their Muslim minorities; explores the rising anti-Semitism that causes Jewish schools and synagogues in France and Germany to resemble armed bunkers; and describes how Russian imperial ambitions are destabilizing nations from Estonia to Ukraine. With President Trump now threatening to abandon A...
Source: Publisher… (plus d'informations)