This anthology pays tribute to Allan Berube (1946-2007), a
self-taught historian and MacArthur Fellow who was a pioneer in the
study of lesbian and gay history in the United States. Best known
for his Lambda Literary Award-winning book
Coming Out Under
Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II (1990),
Berube also wrote extensively on the history of sexual politics in
San Francisco and on the relationship between sexuality, class, and
race. John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman, who were close colleagues
and friends of Berube, have selected sixteen of his most important
essays, including hard-to-access articles and unpublished writing.
The book provides a retrospective on Berube's life and work while
it documents the emergence of a grassroots lesbian and gay
community history movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Taken together,
the essays attest to the power of history to mobilize individuals
and communities to create social change.
