• Gay American History; Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.: A Documentary, Jonathan Katz, 1976.  (Loads of good archival materials: newspaper articles, government reports, political pamphlets, etc.)
• The Invention of Heterosexuality, Jonathan Katz, 1995.  (Good introduction to heterosexuality as a socially constructed category.)
• One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love, David Halperin, 1990.  (Best source for ancient, pre-modern notions of sexuality.)
• The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Abelove, Barale, Halperin, 1993.  (First major anthology of Lesbian and Gay Studies—essays on a wide range of issues and subjects.)
• The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction, 1969-1989, Bonnie Zimmerman, 1990.  (Good general introduction to lesbian literary history during this twenty-year period.)
• Sexual Inversion, Havelock Ellis, 1915.  (Radclyffe Hall's medical model for homosexuality—interesting case studies of lesbians and gay men.)
• The Life of Radclyffe Hall, Una Troubridge, 1961.  (Memoir written by Hall's longtime partner.)
• Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John, Sally Cline, 1997.  (Most recent biography of Hall.)
• Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community, video recording, 1986.  (Good history of lesbians and gay men in America from the 1920s to 1969.)
• After Stonewall, video recording, 1999. (The sequel to Before Stonewall chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the roots at Stonewall to the end of the century.)
• Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS and the Media, Simon Watney, 1987.  (One of the best earlier critical readings of AIDS as a crisis of meaning and identity.  Its point of reference is predominantly British, but its larger lessons are applicable to an American context.)
• And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, Randy Shilts, 1987.  (Incredibly well-researched journalistic account of the early years of the epidemic.  Later made into a movie of the same name.)
• Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970, John D'Emilio, 1983.  (Essential history of these years.)
• Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present, Lillian Faderman, 1981.  (Title says it all.)
• Approaching the Millennium: Essays on Angels in America, eds. Deborah R. Geis and Steven F. Kruger.  (Very good collection of essays on the play)
• Tony Kushner in Conversation, ed. Robert Vorlicky.  (Extensive collection of interviews with Kushner--Not available in library; see Professor Stokes.)
• We Are Everywhere: A Historical Casebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics, eds. Mark Blasius and Shane Phelan (Excellent, comprehensive collection of various primary sources relating to queer history and politics.)
• Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, George Chauncey (Excellent history of gay male New York from 1890-1940, though focused almost exclusively on men.)
• Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transsexuality, Jay Prosser, 1998. (Good chapter on Well.)
• Female Masculinity, Judith Halberstam, 1998. (Good on trans issues.)
• Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, 2000. (Good on the relation between sex and gender.)
• Angels in America, videorecording (2004 HBO production.)

Last update: 1/21/2010