cover image The World Turned-CL

The World Turned-CL

John D'Emilio, John D'Emilio, D'Emilio. Duke University Press, $84.95 (280pp) ISBN 978-0-8223-2930-5

A rabble-rousing college student in the 1960s, a gay liberation activist from the 1970s on, and a former director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Public Policy Institute in the 1990s, University of Illinois history professor John D'Emilio witnessed first-hand the flowering of gay rights and gay acceptance in American culture, as well as the political backlash. He records these in The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture. The previously published personal essays, speeches, reviews and biographical sketches cover such subjects as the career of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the evolution of D'Emilio's sex life, the search for the ""gay gene"" and Pat Buchanan's homophobic star turn during the 1992 Republican National Convention. (Oct.)