| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.5

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 242 words from this article are provided below; about 542 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

David K. Johnson. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2005. Pp. xi, 277. $30.00.

David K. Johnson has written an important book, one that promises to reorient the historical scholarship on the Cold War. Other historians, most notably Robert Dean and Jennifer Terry, have provided detailed accounts of the anti-gay purges of the Cold War era, but they have done so as part of a larger story. What sets Johnson's account apart is that it places the purges center stage. As Johnson notes, historians usually treat the Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians as a byproduct of McCarthyism, if they treat it at all. But drawing on recently declassified government documents, as well as oral interviews with several of the men and women who were victims of the purges, Johnson shows that the Lavender Scare comprised a distinct episode of the Cold War, one in which Joseph McCarthy, a confirmed bachelor who was himself subject to homophobic taunts, had almost no role. As John D'Emilio pointed out long ago, more gays and lesbians were purged from the federal government than suspected communists and fellow travelers. Indeed, the typical victim of Cold War political repression was a gay man or lesbian who, when confronted by investigators, quietly resigned from his or her job rather than face public exposure.

. . .

There are about 542 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.