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Research Guides

History : LGBTQ: Books & eBooks

A research guide to primary and secondary sources for LGBTQ history.

Selected eBooks

Slapping leather : queer cowfolx at the gay rodeo
Queer Korea
The Stonewall Riots : a Documentary History
Wide-Open Desert: A Queer History of New Mexico
Racism and the Making of Gay Rights : a Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love
True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement
Sex in Transition: Remaking Gender and Race in South Africa
Before AIDS : Gay Health Politics in the 1970s
Marvellous Grounds : Queer of Colour Histories of Toronto
Gay Liberation after May ’68
The International LGBT Rights Movement : a History
Vice Patrol : Cops, Courts, and the Struggle over Urban Gay Life before Stonewall
Sex and the Weimar Republic : German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis
Queer Budapest, 1873-1961
Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956-91 : a Different History
Buying Gay : How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement
Sissy Insurgencies : a Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness
The Lexington Six : Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America
Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” Program
Female Husbands : a Trans History.
Queer City : Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day
LGBT Victorians: Sexuality and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Archives
Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s

Using UW Libraries Search to Find Books

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Find eBooks

You can find eBooks in two ways:

  • Do your search and then on the results screen, filter your results by using the toolbar:
    • Choose Availability: "Available Online" and Resource Type: "eBooks"
    • And then click on the green "Apply Filters" button
       
  • Use the Advanced Search option
    • Change "Show Only" to "UW Libraries" and "Material Type" to "eBooks"
       
  • See the eBook FAQ for more information

Search Tips

 

  • By Topic - Type in the keywords that broadly describe your topic. For example: transsexuals africa history
     
  • By Title - search for a specific book by title. Type in the first few words of the book title in quotations. For example: "stonewall breaking"
     
  • By Author - search for books written by a specific author. Type in the last name followed by the first name of the author in quotations. For example: "marhoefer laurie"

History eBook Collections

 Additional collections of eBooks can be found on eBook Collections guide. The following collections have strong history content:

Finding Books Beyond the UW

If you can't find the books you need at the UW or through our Summit partner libraries (Summit material can be found in UW Libraries Search), use the following catalogs. Books not available at the UW can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. 

LGBTQ Subject Headings

Some of the subject headings used to find books in UW Libraries may be outdated or considered incorrect. Subject headings tend to lag behind terminology used today. Many subject headings have overlapping definitions. These are a selection of subject headings that will be useful when searching for books on LGBTQ history. Use the terms in conjunction with the word history when searching for books. For example: gay men great britain history

See QueerLCSH for a comprehensive list of Library of Congress subject headings. Keep in mind other databases such as America History & Life may use other subject terms.

Bisexual men
Bisexual women
Bisexuals
Bisexuality
Gay couples
Gay men
Gays
Gender identity
Gender minorities
Homophobia
Homosexuality
Intersex people
Intersexuality		 Lesbianism
Lesbians
Queer theory
Sex change
Sexual minorities
Sexual orientation
Sodomy
Transgender people
Transgenderism
Transphobia
Transsexualism
Transsexuals
Transvestites

Browsing LGBTQ History

The UW Libraries arranges books by Library of Congress call numbers. LGBTQ history and studies are primarily located under the following call number range.

HQ12-HQ77 Sexual Life Allen S. 3

For a more specific breakdown of the call numbers see the Library of Congress Classification Online.