heartofgoldink24's review against another edition
4.0
“We’re here .... we’re queer ... get used to it!”
From the dazzling, explorative world of the 1920s to the oppressive 1950s and even further onto the rise of LGBTQ+ people’s resistance and strength during the 1970s, Christopher Measom’s PRIDE made sure to capture the transition through these different times beautifully.
Each decade from the 20th century to the 21st was given a thorough examination of the LGBTQ+ community with detailed description and entrancing pictures to match. Curious as can be about the lives of gay and trans people before Stonewall, I was quite satisfied that the book started years before during a time where many people assume that the community did not even exist.
That being said, I suppose my only critiques about this book was its low level use of intersectionality. From the beginning, there was a definite centering of white, able-bodied individuals as the main focus and leader-figures of the community with only a few excerpts of the deeds of major people-of-color figures such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. More attention on them and their actions in helping their fellow LGBTQ+ people would have been much appreciated in creating a better reflective picture.
All in all though, this was a very enjoyable and educational read, and I would recommend it to any who wish to acquire more knowledge on this subject!
From the dazzling, explorative world of the 1920s to the oppressive 1950s and even further onto the rise of LGBTQ+ people’s resistance and strength during the 1970s, Christopher Measom’s PRIDE made sure to capture the transition through these different times beautifully.
Each decade from the 20th century to the 21st was given a thorough examination of the LGBTQ+ community with detailed description and entrancing pictures to match. Curious as can be about the lives of gay and trans people before Stonewall, I was quite satisfied that the book started years before during a time where many people assume that the community did not even exist.
That being said, I suppose my only critiques about this book was its low level use of intersectionality. From the beginning, there was a definite centering of white, able-bodied individuals as the main focus and leader-figures of the community with only a few excerpts of the deeds of major people-of-color figures such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. More attention on them and their actions in helping their fellow LGBTQ+ people would have been much appreciated in creating a better reflective picture.
All in all though, this was a very enjoyable and educational read, and I would recommend it to any who wish to acquire more knowledge on this subject!
roguemedvsa's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
mayoroffailure's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of people don’t know the extensive history that exists in the US in regard to the struggle for acceptance and legal rights amongst members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. For the average person in this country, I would imagine they believe the struggle for rights and representation began in the twenty-first century, and the slightly more educated have most likely heard of stonewall but nothing specific that came prior to it. What this book represents, in essence, is an attempt to provide an overview of the history that LGBTQ+ people have in the US. Whether or not it completely accomplishes that goal is for the reader to decide.
This book occupies a strange middle ground between being a coffee table book and an actual record of note for its subject matter. Despite the secondary title of “A Photographic Journey” the book a great many words, you can read those words in a single afternoon, but I don’t think the final product is necessarily predominately photographic, there are photos but they are not the primary fixation of the book. In addition to the photographs, Mr. Measom provides rough sketches of individual famous members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum and what they accomplished in their life, as well as a chronicle of specific times and events that occurred that led to the current cultural moment of broad-based LGBTQ+ acceptance and marriage equality.
My conflict with this book, as I alluded to above, is that it hangs in a strange middle ground between a historical record and photo book. There are not enough photographs to put it squarely in the category of a photo book and the history is not detailed or comprehensive enough to put it firmly in the category of a history book. As I mentioned, you can read the book in a single afternoon but it's not short enough to be read while you wait for dinner to be ready or any other situation that coffee table books are essentially made for.
My favorite part of this book was the one-page biographies on famous members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum and what they provided to advance the cause of legal rights and acceptance in America. Most of the figures selected for this treatment were people that I was unaware of and the information Mr. Measom provides was incredibly enlightening because it teaches the reader not only about who the person was but also about organizations or causes that they specifically championed which, once again, were mostly things I was previously unaware of. His use of quotations and personal letters, where applicable, was another aspect of the book that I loved, getting the opportunity to hear first-hand accounts on social movements is always a pleasure and the quotes specifically selected for this book were excellent.
However, the retelling of history in this book did not match the quality of the short biographies. I thought that the early chapters surrounding the 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance were excellent, as they were considerably more thorough than the rest of the book. Everything after those chapters felt incomplete. With each successive movement or event, I found myself feeling as though I didn’t have the full story, and that there was more to be discovered than Mr. Measom either had room for or desire to write about. None of the information covered feels critically lacking, the reader will be able to understand what occurred in broad strokes, but none of it ever felt complete as it should be. For example, when the book finds its way to Stonewall, without question the most important event in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, it is given less time than the AIDs epidemic, which feels incredibly disproportionate. Both topics are important, but a majority of the information surrounding Stonewall is a letter written by someone who was there, and there is little explanation or analysis provided by Mr. Measom beyond a basic description of what happened.
What this book does do, which I think is incredibly important, is highlight the oppression and mistreatment given to members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum over their history in America. I have a feeling that most people are under the impression that members of the queer community were ostracized socially but were never necessarily mistreated by the law. This is patently false, as it was not only illegal to be gay for a very long period in America, but several laws were erected to try and weed out public displays of existence from other members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. A lot of this information was not something I was aware of prior to reading this book, and understanding just how oppressive much of the policing and legislation surrounding queer people gave me a better understanding of how important the Pride movement is. If there is a major benefit to be gained by reading this book for those who are outside of the LGBTQ+ spectrum it would be a better understanding of the struggle that queer people have had in this country prior to the twenty-first century, they weren’t just ostracized socially, they were essentially illegal.
Overall, Pride is a mixed bag. There is a fair amount of good information presented to the reader in regards to oppressive laws and important figures in history but it suffers from a lack of focus on what it wants to be, and its attempt to be both photographic history and an oral retelling ends up creating a strange, slightly unfocused history book. This book would probably be most enjoyed, and found most informative, by anyone who has very little prior knowledge of the LGBTQ+ rights movement as it hits the major topics and highlights some very important details that the average person will not be aware of. I picked this book up a year ago because I wanted some resources on the LGBTQ+ spectrum’s history after discovering my own identity, and it was an informative overview, but I’m ultimately more excited to move on to what else has been written.
This book occupies a strange middle ground between being a coffee table book and an actual record of note for its subject matter. Despite the secondary title of “A Photographic Journey” the book a great many words, you can read those words in a single afternoon, but I don’t think the final product is necessarily predominately photographic, there are photos but they are not the primary fixation of the book. In addition to the photographs, Mr. Measom provides rough sketches of individual famous members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum and what they accomplished in their life, as well as a chronicle of specific times and events that occurred that led to the current cultural moment of broad-based LGBTQ+ acceptance and marriage equality.
My conflict with this book, as I alluded to above, is that it hangs in a strange middle ground between a historical record and photo book. There are not enough photographs to put it squarely in the category of a photo book and the history is not detailed or comprehensive enough to put it firmly in the category of a history book. As I mentioned, you can read the book in a single afternoon but it's not short enough to be read while you wait for dinner to be ready or any other situation that coffee table books are essentially made for.
My favorite part of this book was the one-page biographies on famous members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum and what they provided to advance the cause of legal rights and acceptance in America. Most of the figures selected for this treatment were people that I was unaware of and the information Mr. Measom provides was incredibly enlightening because it teaches the reader not only about who the person was but also about organizations or causes that they specifically championed which, once again, were mostly things I was previously unaware of. His use of quotations and personal letters, where applicable, was another aspect of the book that I loved, getting the opportunity to hear first-hand accounts on social movements is always a pleasure and the quotes specifically selected for this book were excellent.
However, the retelling of history in this book did not match the quality of the short biographies. I thought that the early chapters surrounding the 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance were excellent, as they were considerably more thorough than the rest of the book. Everything after those chapters felt incomplete. With each successive movement or event, I found myself feeling as though I didn’t have the full story, and that there was more to be discovered than Mr. Measom either had room for or desire to write about. None of the information covered feels critically lacking, the reader will be able to understand what occurred in broad strokes, but none of it ever felt complete as it should be. For example, when the book finds its way to Stonewall, without question the most important event in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, it is given less time than the AIDs epidemic, which feels incredibly disproportionate. Both topics are important, but a majority of the information surrounding Stonewall is a letter written by someone who was there, and there is little explanation or analysis provided by Mr. Measom beyond a basic description of what happened.
What this book does do, which I think is incredibly important, is highlight the oppression and mistreatment given to members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum over their history in America. I have a feeling that most people are under the impression that members of the queer community were ostracized socially but were never necessarily mistreated by the law. This is patently false, as it was not only illegal to be gay for a very long period in America, but several laws were erected to try and weed out public displays of existence from other members of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. A lot of this information was not something I was aware of prior to reading this book, and understanding just how oppressive much of the policing and legislation surrounding queer people gave me a better understanding of how important the Pride movement is. If there is a major benefit to be gained by reading this book for those who are outside of the LGBTQ+ spectrum it would be a better understanding of the struggle that queer people have had in this country prior to the twenty-first century, they weren’t just ostracized socially, they were essentially illegal.
Overall, Pride is a mixed bag. There is a fair amount of good information presented to the reader in regards to oppressive laws and important figures in history but it suffers from a lack of focus on what it wants to be, and its attempt to be both photographic history and an oral retelling ends up creating a strange, slightly unfocused history book. This book would probably be most enjoyed, and found most informative, by anyone who has very little prior knowledge of the LGBTQ+ rights movement as it hits the major topics and highlights some very important details that the average person will not be aware of. I picked this book up a year ago because I wanted some resources on the LGBTQ+ spectrum’s history after discovering my own identity, and it was an informative overview, but I’m ultimately more excited to move on to what else has been written.
woodlandbooklover's review against another edition
5.0
Good overview of LGBTQ+ history from early 1900s through 2015 marriage equality. Can be a springboard to send people to further reading and research. A gorgeous book.
michellereadatrix's review
5.0
Beautiful. Beyond the fascinating, evocative text, so much of this is just lovely eye candy.
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