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Staff Pick
Susan Stryker is an incredible historian, and in her seminal Transgender History she compiles a trans history of resilience from the mid-20th century to the present to show that progress is at times less like an arrow than it is a boomerang. A must-read for anyone and everyone. Recommended By Cosima C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A timely second edition of the classic text on transgender history, with a new introduction and updated material throughout.
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990 — the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.
Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.
Review
"Ground-breaking and all-around excellent" Autostraddle
Review
"An invaluable text for anyone who wants to better understand evolving concepts of gender. Essential." CHOICE
Review
"This timely and relevant book should be required reading." Portland Book Review
About the Author
Susan Stryker is associate professor of gender and women's studies, as well as the former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona. She is the author of many articles and several books on transgender and queer topics. She won a Lambda Literary Award for the anthology The Transgender Studies Reader (Routledge 2006), and an Emmy Award for the documentary film Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (Frameline/ITVS 2005).