by Louis Crompton
from Belknap Press
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Editorial ReviewHow have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? In a narrative tour de force, Louis Crompton chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution, as he compares the Christian West with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab Spain, imperial China, and pre-Meiji Japan. Ancient Greek culture celebrated same-sex love in history, literature, and art, making high claims for its moral influence. By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World. Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of "sodomites" in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters--Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio--often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great. Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece. Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, Homosexuality and Civilization is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past. (20031130)
Customer Reviews:
- Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
- 4.5 Stars for a Fascinating Reading on Well-Researched Chapters of Homosexual Civilization - Lacking Some Chapters
I read the original hard cover edition of 2003. It has 640 pages, some 100 color pictures and some 450 regular text pages.
It covers Greece, Judea, the Roman Empire, Western Europe (mainly Italy, Spain [Christian and Muslim], France, England, the Netherlands and Prussia [historic part of Germany]), as well as China and Japan. That seems to be Crompton's (or the publisher's) definition of civilization. Considering that once the biggest cities were located in (sub-Saharan) Africa, that there were urban... more info
- A very learned essay on the rise and, one opes, fall, of homophobic racism
Homosexuality has always been a natural variation of human nature: this has been aacknowledged universally, till a misjudged analogy (homosexuality equals idolatry of foreign gods) has been transfonded in a monstruously erroneous condemnation. This history shows that no moral one can rationally propound can be advance to condemn something that doesnt'do anyone any harm, so paranoid haters had to fabricate those reasons, basing them in entirely erroneous readings of biblical hepisodes. After the religion... more info
- One-handed reading for the fire-and-brimstone crowd!
I agree with other positive ("hysterical?") reviewers about this big tasty brick of a book on a subject that deserves many more such studies. This is my kind of book, scholarly, logical, thoughtful, articulate, and thorough. But could have been a bit more sexy.
I must add a few suggestions to round out the text. These additions along with some cuts would not expand the work very much. Perhaps for the second paperback edition?
The events in the first third are undistiguished and repetitive despite... more info
- Homosexuality Throughout History
Take a stroll through history and look at how homosexuality has developed over the centuries. You'll read about religious views of homosexuality and gay leaders.
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