A B S T R A C T. Recent work in the modern history of sexuality, now an established field of inquiry, is characterized by particular approaches to the interpretation of modernity and selfhood. In general, and in contrast to previous approaches, the books under review treat modernity as a localized process with specific effects. Sexual identity is understood in a similar way, as a phenomenon bounded by locality, class, age, nationality, gender, patterns of sociability, and other contextual factors. As such, speaking of sexual identity as a unitary entity, or as something that has historically been structured by an opposition of homosexual/ heterosexual, no longer makes sense. In fact, the homo/hetero binary is of much more recent vintage than has been hitherto thought. These histories of sexuality challenge historians of all kinds to rethink the nature of categories like selfhood, identity, and modernity.
In 1885 a small group of men began to meet regularly in Bolton, England, to discuss the poetry of Walt Whitman. They thought that Whitman's writings could provide the basis of a new religion, as well as offering spiritual guidance for the people in an age of mass politics. Intense friendships developed between some of the group as well as an interest in the nature of homosexuality. In order to explain their own quasi‐homosexual attachments, they created a new understanding of spiritual love and of an alternate self. These ideas influenced and were influenced by the work of Edward Carpenter.
Historians have tended to agree that homosexuality is defined more by culture than nature. However, they disagree over the question of how exactly culture and history shape sexual practices and identity. A few years ago, historians sought to find the origins of modern homosexuality, and tended to treat homosexuality as one thing. It was assumed that modern homosexuality meant an association with effeminacy, and that the effeminate homosexual was a creation of the eighteenth century. Now, however, historians see homosexuality as a diverse phenomenon, encompassing a wide range of behaviour and identity, and have tried to dismantle the idea that it must have a unitary history. Historians have also become much more interested in the continuities between present and past behaviour. They have also given a new prominence to social factors, rather than sexual ones, in the formation of sexuality.
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