The Mayor of Castro Street : The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)) [Illustrated]

The Mayor of Castro Street : The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)) [Illustrated]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
When Randy Shilts's The Mayor of Castro Street appeared in 1982, the very idea of a gay political biography was brand-new. While biographies of literary and artistic figures (both living and dead) were a popular genre, there had been no openly gay political figure who merited a full-length book. Harvey Milk--a gay political organizer who became the first openly gay city supervisor in San Francisco and was then assassinated (along with liberal mayor George Moscone)--was the obvious choice for such a book. And Randy Shilts--a young reporter who had risen up through the gay press to become the first openly gay reporter with a gay "beat" in the American mainstream press--was the perfect person to write it. While his later works such as And the Band Played On and Conduct Unbecoming were based on hard-hitting, fact-driven reportage, Shilts's tone in The Mayor of Castro Street is softer, more focused on the narrative of Harvey Milk's political rise from running a small business on Castro Street, to organizing local gay men and lesbians around grass-roots issues, to winning an elected office. But in many ways this is also a forceful and engaging story of the gay rights movement in the second half of the 20th century. Thus, Shilts follows the growth of the Castro as a gay neighborhood and the growth of San Francisco's gay community from a ragtag collection of people who socialized and sexualized together into a vibrant and political force. --Michael Bronski

Review
"A no-holds-barred character study and a history of the local gay movement . . . An investigative piece on the mechanics of big-city government in all its expedient, back-biting splendor."--The Washington Post

"A remarkable work [of] biography, social history, and political machination . . . Exceptional."--The Los Angeles Times

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)),Randy Shilts,St. Martin's Griffin,0312019009,Artists, Architects, Photographers,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography / Autobiography,Biography/Autobiography,California,Gay Studies,Gay liberation movement,General,Milk, Harvey,Politicians,San Francisco,San Francisco (Calif.),Modern fiction,Social Science / Gay Studies

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