Shaun de Waal
HOMOSEXUALITY: A HISTORY by Colin Spencer (Fourth Estate, R69,95)
TAKING on an almost ludicrously broad field, Colin Spencer whizzes through man ifestations of same-sex love from prehistory to the present day. His overviews of ancient societies and the Renaissance, particularly, are interesting and u
seful, but he seems unsure of which theory of sexuality-in-society he’s using, and an unfortunate prudishness manifests itself when we get to the 1970s and
1980s (yes , sex between men is often “phallocentric”). For a much more solid guide to ho mosexuality in this century, try Neil Miller’s admirable tome, Out of the Past .