Colin R. Johnson

A good solid read, though some of it feels repetitive if you've read other pieces of queer history (I literally just finished portions of Jack Halberstam's In a Queer Time and Place which makes the argument about the urban-centric focus on queer communities really not look as fresh as it might have otherwise.) The best chapters in my opinion were the chapter on "hard women" (chapter six) and the chapter about community policing or non-policing (chapter four.) Those were the chapters were Johnson's point about pushing queer historiography were really most obvious and challenging. Otherwise it was... fine? I enjoyed the chapter about the CCC in the same way I love all stories about drag shows in male homosocial spaces, but I didn't find it particularly groundbreaking. But I did leave it grateful that I had read it, so I think that is worth something (hence the four stars.)… (mere)