The disruptions of World War II, when young men and women by the millions were leaving their families and hometowns to join the military or work in defense industries, created a few years in which a gay world seemed to flourish. An alliance formed among police, doctors, and moral reformers who were interested in identifying and punishing sexual outlaws. In the 1910s, ’20s, and ’30s, Ryan observes that it was “increasingly possible to live a queer life.” But that growing visibility and collective existence was also making it easier to get into trouble for it. In the decades bordering the start of the 20th century, queer folk began to discover each other more easily and to learn that they were not the only ones.

Ryan describes the mid-19th century-the decades of Whitman in Brooklyn-as a time when some individuals were coming to recognize themselves as queer. History is above all a study of change, and Ryan does an excellent job of moving through several eras of the past, each with distinguishing characteristics.