"Scandal on Plum Island" takes the reader back to the early 1910s when the federal government was just beginning to notice and punish homosexuality. With a focus on the 1914 court-martial of a distinguished Army major commanding an island post 100 miles east of New York City, the book tells a true story of injustice, sexual politics, changing standards of masculinity, early homophobia, and outright mendacity reaching to the highest levels of power in Washington, DC. Carefully researched and referenced, yet written in fast-moving prose, the book is suitable for general readers as well as students in American history, LGBTQ history and rights, women's studies, queer studies, and masculinity studies. Numerous historical figures as different as Theodore Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony play roles. The book's relevance to issues of today--including the rise in violence against members of the LGBTQ community, military service by transgender individuals, and the #MeToo movement--is addressed in the epilogue.
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