Fragmented Citizens

The road that gay and lesbians have traveled over the past half century has been a long and winding one, especially if they lived in different parts of the country. This book aims to grow the larger library of literature that examines how society has treated gays and lesbians over the years, how it has changed, and how that change has come about. While most studies focus on certain regions, this book looks at the country overall. While it examines the entire country, it focuses more on how federal law has changed the life of gays and lesbians, sacrificing a look at state- and local-level changes, but that could be due to lack of space. But Mr. Engel does a good job sensitizing a lot of legal history into something that is readable for the average reader without getting to caught up in legal jargon, while also looking at changes over time and the legal battles that were fought. While the rights of gays and lesbians have come a long way, he shows that there is still some ways to go. What this opens is for scholars to start looking at the big picture and for more books like this to come out.