| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 261 words from this article are provided below; about 620 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, 112.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Martin Meeker. Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communication and Community, 1940s-1970s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp. xviii, 321. Cloth $75.00, paper $25.00.
In this book, Martin Meeker argues that the emergence of gay and lesbian communities in the United States was largely the result of massive changes in the ways that individuals could connect to knowledge about homosexuality and connect with one another. He downplays the popular explanation that the examples of civil rights movements, the militancy of other minorities in the 1960s, and the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 were responsible for the astonishing metamorphosis of once isolated and fearful homosexuals. He wishes to demonstrate instead that pre-internet communication networks were the vital engines of social change and cultural invention for homosexuals.	1
Meeker begins by tracing some primitive, "quasi-private" attempts by homosexuals to connect with one another, such as the "Illiterary Digest," a 1943 mimeographed circular sent by its writer, who was in the military, to other gay G.I.s. Meeker also shows how homosexuals used print media intended for a more general readership in order to make contact with one another. For instance, The Hobby Directory, published from 1946 to 1952 as a forum for men to correspond about their hobbies, sometimes ran ads that had coded significance, such as an ad from a thirty-three year old man—whose hobbies were physical culture and wrestling, as well as vocal music and theater—looking for men "who combine physical and cultural ideals with high standards of friendship" (p. 24).	. . .

There are about 620 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.